Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-43041

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the people who were experiencing a delayed discharge at the November 2025 census point, had been delayed for more than four weeks.

Public Health Scotland publishes monthly Official Statistics on Delayed Discharge in NHS Scotland. The number of people delayed for more than four weeks at each monthly census point can be found in the detailed data tables for Standard delays and Code 9 (complex) delays.

Please note, the number of people delayed for Standard or Code 9 reasons at monthly census point reflects the main reason at the census point, and reasons for delay may change during a delay episode. The number of people delayed for four weeks or more for Standard reasons at monthly census point may therefore include some people who were delayed for complex (code 9) reasons during the same delay episode.

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/delayed-discharges-in-nhsscotland-monthly/delayed-discharges-in-nhs-scotland-monthly-figures-for-november-2025

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/36782/2026-01-13_delayed_discharges_standard_delays_tables_to_november_2025.xlsx

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/36781/2026-01-13_delayed_discharges_code9_delays_tables_to_november_2025.xlsx

Question reference: S6W-42989

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government when the new "ask and act" obligations included in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 will be fully implemented, to ensure that people are not being discharged from hospital into street homelessness.

The Scottish Government is committed to full and successful implementation of the new homelessness prevention duties.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 includes a provision that Part 5 (homelessness prevention, including ask and act) should be commenced no later than three years from Royal Assent (given November 2025). However, we are clear that relevant bodies do not have to wait for the duties to come into force to adopt the ask and act approach, based on shared responsibility and earlier intervention to prevent homelessness.

We are funding and currently commissioning learning from prevention pilots and independent research to assess the impact of the duties on the relevant bodies named in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, including health bodies.

This will help inform the development of guidance and secondary legislation in the coming period and support a smooth and effective rollout, ensuring that individuals are not discharged from hospital or other institutions into homelessness.

Question reference: S6W-42985

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-42568 by Jenni Minto on 5 January 2026, by what date the scoping exercise for a national respiratory audit by Public Health Scotland will be completed.

The scoping exercise we commissioned Public Health Scotland (PHS) to carry out for a national respiratory audit was completed in March 2024 but due to fiscal challenges PHS have been unable to progress the development of a national respiratory audit.

We continue to engage with the Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee and stakeholders to improve standards of care and data collection for respiratory care across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-42935

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recommendation in the Audit Scotland report, Delayed discharges: A symptom of the challenges facing health and social care, which was published on 8 January 2026, that "the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), Healthcare Improvement Scotland, integration authorities and their partner NHS boards and councils, should...over the next 12 months, provide guidance on, and better promote public awareness of the benefits of, establishing a power of attorney or a guardianship order".

The Scottish Government welcomes Audit Scotland’s report and has asked the Collaborative Response and Assurance group, which is co-chaired by the Scottish Government and CoSLA to come together to consider these recommendations as a whole and develop a partnership approach to addressing them. The Scottish Government remains committed to reforming the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) 2000 Act will which will play a critical role in embedding this recommendation in future.

Question reference: S6W-42990

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many nurses are currently employed by NHS Scotland, and how this compares to 2006-07.

Question reference: S6W-42936

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Audit Scotland report, Delayed discharges: A symptom of the challenges facing health and social care, which was published on 8 January 2026, what plans it has to carry out a workforce evaluation to understand the implications of the anticipated rise in demand for power of attorney or a guardianship orders associated with the recommendation in the report for "the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), Healthcare Improvement Scotland, integration authorities and their partner NHS boards and councils [to] provide guidance on, and better promote public awareness of the benefits of, establishing a power of attorney or a guardianship order".

The Scottish Government welcomes Audit Scotland’s report and has asked the Collaborative Response and Assurance group, which is co-chaired by the Scottish Government and CoSLA to come together to consider these recommendations as a whole and develop a partnership approach to addressing them. The Scottish Government has begun this work and is engaged with key partners to discuss the delivery of Powers of Attorney and Guardianship processes.

Question reference: S6W-42986

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-42576 by Jenni Minto on 29 December 2025, what the timescale is for the introduction of enhanced service practitioners.

As noted in response to question S6W-42576, as part of the strategic work to implement the Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework, the Scottish Government are considering how best to shift the balance of care by reducing referrals to hospital dental services and retain patients within their local community for a wider range of care and treatment. Officials are appraising various options as part of this work, including the potential further roll-out of enhanced skills dentists in primary care, therefore there is currently no timeline for further roll-out at this stage.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Question reference: S6W-42991

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many doctors are currently employed by NHS Scotland, and how this compares to 2006-07.

Question reference: S6W-42992

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many dentists are currently employed by NHS Scotland, and how this compares to 2006-07.

Question reference: S6W-42896

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many households in Inverclyde have been placed in temporary accommodation in each year since 2019, also broken down by how many have remained in such accommodation for more than one year, and for how long.

The following table shows the total number of households in Inverclyde that were in temporary accommodation at some point during each year from 2018-19 to 2024-25.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25
Total	198	253	322	302	221	220	236

Households can have multiple temporary accommodation placements. Only one placement per reporting period has been included. This means a household will be included in each year in which they have spent time in temporary accommodation only once and not counted multiple times within the same year. This also means households will be included multiple times if they are in temporary accommodation within different years.

The following table shows the total number of households who spent any time in temporary accommodation in a reporting year where the total duration in temporary accommodation throughout their homelessness application was more than one year. This is broken down by duration.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25
1 to 2 years	10	10	30	30	20	40	30
2 to 3 years	<4	<4	5	5	5	5	0
3 years +	<4	<4	<4	<4	<4	<4	0
Total	15	15	35	35	25	45	30

For reasons noted above, this table will include duplication. For example, if a household has a total duration of more than a year, they will appear in the totals for each year they have spent any time in temporary accommodation.

Data source: Scottish Government, HL1 & HL3 Homelessness statistics - gov.scot

Additional notes:

Total duration is calculated by adding together the durations of individual temporary accommodation placements associated with the same homelessness application.

It is possible for a household to have multiple homelessness applications.

Disclosure control has been applied to protect the identity of individuals. Figures are rounded to the nearest 5, apart from 1,2 and 3, which are shown as '<4'.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

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