Part of General Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament am ar 6 Chwefror 2025.
Neil Gray
Scottish National Party
I do not know the detail of the case that the member raises, but on the face of it, I agree that it is unacceptable. With longer-term cases, such as the one that he has referenced, there is often complexity, but I am very clear that the current level of delayed discharge, particularly the considerable variation across different areas, is not acceptable.
As a result, the Government has been working with local health and social care partnerships and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to identify key challenges and barriers to hospital discharge, as well as identifying shared good practice to support improvements. The work includes the provision of more direct whole-system support to areas such as the Highlands and Dumfries and Galloway, which face the biggest challenges with delays.
I am confident that our collaborative work in that space will deliver improvement, but I know that more needs to be done to support it. That is why the 2025-26 budget includes a commitment of an additional £100 million in funding to tackle delayed discharge by, for example, further expanding the hospital at home service. If approved by the Parliament, that funding will support our ambition to grow the hospital at home service to 2,000 beds by December 2026. That would make it the biggest hospital in the country, and would help address hospital occupancy and delayed discharge issues.
Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask Government Ministers questions. These questions are asked in the Chamber itself and are known as Oral Questions. Members may also put down Written Questions. In the House of Commons, Question Time takes place for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after Prayers. The different Government Departments answer questions according to a rota and the questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the Government Department concerned. In the House of Lords up to four questions may be asked of the Government at the beginning of each day's business. They are known as 'starred questions' because they are marked with a star on the Order Paper. Questions may also be asked at the end of each day's business and these may include a short debate. They are known as 'unstarred questions' and are less frequent. Questions in both Houses must be written down in advance and put on the agenda and both Houses have methods for selecting the questions that will be asked. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P1 at the UK Parliament site.
