If you're just joining us, here's a recap of today's First Minister's Questions:

• Both Russell Findlay and Anas Sarwar pressed the first minister on a "damming" RCN report which highlights concerns of nurses.
• Findlay said the report shows the "NHS is broken" while Sarwar called on the FM to apologise to nurses.
• John Swinney defended the steps the government is taking in light of "unprecedented demand" during flu season.
• Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater called on the government to take action to meet climate targets following recent natural disasters.
• The first minister reiterated the government's commitment to its climate policies.
• Elsewhere, there were calls for bowel screening to be extended to people under the age of 50.
• Swinney hailed an £800m investment in battery storage as a "landmark announcement" for Scotland.

That concludes our live page coverage of First Minister's Questions for this week. The editor was Paul McLaren and the writers were Catherine Lyst and Megan Bonar.

SNP and Labour slug it out on benefitspublished at 13:02 Greenwich Mean Time 16 January

13:02 GMT 16 January

Philip Sim
BBC Scotland political correspondent

It’s often telling to see which topics John Swinney has teed up for him via his own backbenchers.

Today, the government was apparently keen to hit back at Scottish Secretary Ian Murray over the question of their efforts to offset the two-child cap on some UK-wide benefits.

Holyrood ministers have always insisted that the determining factor in how quickly this policy can be delivered is how quickly they can get crucial data from the Department of Work and Pensions.

Mr Murray has said the DWP was keen to help, but that there was still policy work to be done at the Scottish government end, and that ministers weren’t entirely clear what they were asking for.

That was an attempt to put the ball back in Mr Swinney’s court, and he has returned it with some fury.

The Scottish government has produced the letter they sent to Mr Murray and the DWP Secretary Liz Kendall in December, asking for data.

Mr Murray’s office doesn’t dispute receiving it, but notes that it consisted of six brief bullet points – nowhere near the intricate level of detail which would be required to knit a new policy into the UK-wide benefits framework.

And it is fair to reflect that the note closes by saying it is not an exhaustive list, because talks between officials are ongoing.

There absolutely is still policy work to be done at the Scottish government end; they haven’t yet decided what mechanism they are going to use to offset the cap, be it a new payment or an expansion of something like the Scottish Child Payment.

But for all the talk of wanting to help, there was clearly an attempt to put pressure back on Mr Swinney about a policy which the SNP will clearly use against Labour in 2026.

Behind the claims of governmental cooperation, there is raw party politics at play here on both sides.

The SNP's Fergus Ewing asks if the first minister he agrees that Scotland needs to resume exploration of oil and gas.

Thirty million UK homes are heated by gas and much of that has to be imported, the MSP says.

Ewing says that without UK exploration "we are only providing a boost to the fracking industry so beloved of president-elect Donald Trump".

Swinney responds by stating the Scottish government is working with industry on a just transition strategy.

“I’m confident Scotland will have the energy generation capacity that it needs to meet the challenges of the future,” he says.

Tory Roz McCall highlights the announcement by Lloyds Banking Group that it plans to close its base in Dunfermline in 2026 which currently employs 1,500 people.

She says that although most people will relocate to Edinburgh or work remotely, the impact on the local area has been vast and the potential extra costs for staff are "deeply concerning".

She asks what engagement the government has had with Lloyds Banking Group and will the first minister work to ensure that any impact will be minimal.

Swinney says it is a matter for the company but expects the issue will be discussed at the next meeting of the financial services advisory board which the government co-chairs.

He adds that the government will do all it can to minimise the impact.

Back to the backbench MSPs' questions and Scottish Labour MSP Claire Baker asks how the government plans to ensure patients will be safe in hospitals.

She says a recent report states 182 sexual assaults including rapes have taken place in hospitals in the last five years.

“Patients are often vulnerable and exposed”, she says, adding there are questions about how the NHS responds to these crimes.

The first minister says assaults on patients and staff are “abhorrent” and “cannot be tolerated”.

Has the SNP's position on oil and gas drifted?published at 12:49 Greenwich Mean Time 16 January

12:49 GMT 16 January

Lorna Slater’s question – on the government’s “presumption against” oil and gas exploration – does strike to a lingering mystery in Scottish politics.

Has the SNP’s position on the topic drifted somewhat since the days when Nicola Sturgeon declared a climate emergency?

Since then climate targets have been dropped, the Greens have been ousted from government, and things have taken a notably more business-friendly turn.

But ultimately we don’t actually know what the government’s formal position is, because its long-awaited energy strategy remains unpublished.

Mr Swinney insisted that it’s important the government takes time to consider its position, which must be “well evidenced”.

He is going to have to come to a firm position sooner or later though, and in a parliament of minorities it may be pivotal to the SNP’s relationship with the Greens – and thus how well they can govern.

The SNP's Jackie Dunbar asks what assessment the Scottish government has made of the potential economic impact of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners' reported £800m investment in battery energy storage sites in Scotland.

Swinney says he welcomes the investment in South Lanarkshire and Fife which will bring jobs and economic value locally and to Scotland as a whole.

He says this investment is a "show of confidence" in Scotland and a "landmark announcement" for the country's economic and net zero prospects.

To the backbenches now, and Scottish Conservative MSP Edward Mountain asks if the government will extend bowel screening to people under the age of 50.

He says Scotland’s NHS has led the way in bowel screening since 2017 but “more work” needs to be done due to a growing number of younger people being diagnosed.

The first minister says the government has fully adopted the UK recommendation that everyone over 50 is invited to be screened for the disease.

This has been tough going for Swinneypublished at 12:40 Greenwich Mean Time 16 January

12:40 GMT 16 January

Philip Sim
BBC Scotland political correspondent

This has been an uncomfortable session for John Swinney.

In recent weeks he’s given the impression of relishing his clashes with opposition leaders.

But this RCN report has provided an extensive list of quotes from nurses which opposition leaders can read out.

Russell Findlay dropped multiple quotes into every one of his four questions, meaning the first minister effectively had to respond to the concerns of at least a dozen nurses. That left him with little chance to hit back with political arguments.

He leaned on some classic responses – apologising to patients, and commending the work of staff.

But that just led to Anas Sarwar accusing him of using those staff as a shield.

The Labour leader has hammered away at the idea of a crisis in the NHS for years, and is building his 2026 election strategy around the idea that the SNP is failing the health services.

On health, Mr Swinney was able to fall back on statistics, from a record spike in winter flu cases to staffing numbers.

But when grasping for a political basis to lash out at Mr Sarwar, it ended up being about something completely unrelated – the Labour government’s treatment of Waspi women.

The first minister says the government is committed to taking action on the climate.

He says the government has a number of climate policy measures in place and they are also taking practical financial steps to support them.

“I want to ensure we fulfil our obligations”, he adds.

Image source, Getty Images

The co-leader of the Scottish Greens, Lorna Slater, asks the first minister if he will take action to meet climate targets.

“We are seeing the climate break down in front of our eyes,” she says, referring to recent wildfires in Los Angeles.

She asks the first minister to consider road charges and cutting the price of public transport to reduce traffic in an attempt to get the country “back on track” towards reaching targets.

Sarwar says there isn’t just a winter crisis in the NHS but a “permanent crisis in the NHS”.

He highlights more examples experienced by patients and nurses and says 90% of nurses say patient safety is being compromised.

He says: “Isn’t this the deadly reality of the NHS on John Swinney and the SNP’s watch?”

Swinney says the government has increased NHS staffing by 26.6% since it has been in office but says there is a harsh reality about the increased demand. He says the government is investing the largest sum of money ever in the NHS.

Sarwar says Swinney is "asleep at the wheel".

The RCN report says nurses are reporting an increase in so-called corridor care.

The term is used to describe the practice of providing treatment in corridors, offices and even car parks due to a lack of available beds or space on wards.

Colin Poolman, the RCN's director in Scotland, told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme the practice is becoming normalised.

He said: "We don’t even know the full scale of this because we don’t record when people are looked after in inappropriate places.

"We believe it is huge and it needs to be measured and then eradicated."

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also focuses on the RCN'S “damning” report.

He describes the evidence as shameful and asks Swinney to apologise to NHS staff that he and the SNP government are “failing every day”.

The first minister says he visited the emergency department at the Royal Infirmary on 4 January to "see with my own eyes" the pressure that was being recounted to him by health service leaders.

He highlights the increase in flu cases – saying hospital admissions nearly doubled from 708 in the week ending 15 December to 1,382 in the week ending 22 December and increased further to 1,596 in the week ending 29 December. He says this was the period of time the survey was taken.

He adds that staff numbers, consultant numbers and the capacity of NHS24 had been increased in a review of urgent care.

Image source, Getty Images

Ahead of FMQs, the health secretary Neil Gray discussed the RCN report on BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme.

He said it comes at a time when the NHS is dealing with "shifting demand" and "unprecedented levels of flu".

"I obviously apologise to any patient and indeed staff member for the situation they have faced, when standards have not been what we would expect them to be," he said.

He added the Scottish government was continuing work to alleviate pressure on the NHS by reducing how long patients are staying in hospitals.

Image source, scottish parliament tv

Russell Findlay says patients deserve “dignity and decency from the NHS”, which nurses say they can’t provide.

He highlights the testimony of several nurses from the report, one who says she is having to put targets before patients.

John Swinney says he will give the issue his “unrelenting focus” and alongside the health secretary will work to ensure patients get proper care.

John Swinney says he is “fully aware of the circumstances that are prevailing in hospitals”.

He adds flu cases are the highest since records began in 2010.

The first minister says he wants to assure patients the government has the support in place to address the "unprecedented demand".

The Royal College of Nursing published more than 400 pages of testimony, external from its members around the UK about the problems they had been seeing.

These included:

• People having cardiac arrests in corridors or cubicles which are blocked by patients on trolleys, delaying life-saving CPR
• Others dying on trolleys and chairs in waiting rooms with one nurse saying the NHS was "no better" than the developing world
• Women miscarrying in side rooms, which nurses said was not only distressing for patients but made it difficult to monitor for deterioration
• An incontinent, frail patient with dementia having to be changed next to a vending machine in a corridor
• Cases where 20 to 30 patients have been left in corridors under the care of one nurse and healthcare assistant
• Elderly patients left to sit on chairs for days and spending hours in beds on corridors in soiled clothing

Findlay asks the first minister if he agrees with Scottish nurses that "the NHS is broken".

It comes after the Royal College of Nursing published a report today which features testimonies from over 500 Scottish nurses.

The report “lays bare our broken NHS”, he says.

Russell Findlay begins FMQs by raising nurses' concerns about patients dying because of the strain on the NHS.