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-41258

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 4 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many requests for respite care have been declined due to a lack of staff availability in the last year.

Question reference: S6W-41218

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 31 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many kinship carers have appealed decisions regarding financial support in the last 12 months.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the total number of appeal decisions made by kinship carers regarding financial assistance.

Decisions regarding financial support, including any appeals, are managed by individual local authorities in accordance with their statutory duties. The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman is the final stage for complaints about public service organisations, and it publishes the outcome of complaints, including appeals on kinship care, at Decision Reports | SPSO.

Question reference: S6W-41235

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 31 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what mechanisms exist to evaluate complaints from children about their experience in public services.

The Scottish Public Service Ombudsman (SPSO) has a statutory function in relation to complaints handling for most public bodies. If children and/or their representatives are not content with the way a public service within SPSO’s jurisdiction has dealt with their complaint they can escalate it to SPSO. When required to investigate complaints, SPSO highlight mistakes and failures in the complaints handling process and make recommendations to remedy those. SPSO also have legal powers to make a declaration of non-compliance if the public authority has failed to ensure their procedures are consistent with a model complaints handling process.

With extra funding from the Scottish Government, SPSO have created child friendly complaints handling principles and child friendly complaints handling process guidance to help public bodies under their jurisdiction to implement a model complaints handling procedure in a way that upholds children’s rights under the UNCRC.

The Scottish Government is also working with external stakeholders to co-develop data collection to help understand children and young people’s experiences of raising an individual rights issue to identify if and where children and young people encounter barriers and gaps in support, information, and services that they need to claim their rights.

Question reference: S6W-41248

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 28 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many official complaints have been submitted by care-experienced young people about their treatment in the care system in the last year.

Question reference: S6W-41237

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 21 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of child protection concerns raised by health visitors have been escalated to formal investigation in each year since 2016.

Question reference: S6T-02704

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to meet the interim and final child poverty reduction targets, in light of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s finding in its report, Poverty in Scotland 2025, that current levels remain largely unchanged since 2021.

Question reference: S6O-05057

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on youth work provision of its budget decisions, in light of the most recent YouthLink Scotland survey indicating that the majority of young people accessing youth work do so through the voluntary sector.

Question reference: S6W-40567

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 29 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the contribution of the nuclear power sector to the economy of East Lothian in the last five years.

The Scottish Government recognises the significant contribution Torness nuclear power station has made to Scotland’s energy system and to the East Lothian economy over several decades.

A Scottish Government commissioned report, Electricity system security of supply Scotland, published in 2023, found that the increase in renewable generation capacity along with the installation of storage technologies would provide security of supply in Scotland.

Although the Scottish Government commissioned this report, security of supply is a reserved matter that the National Energy Systems Operator (NESO) is responsible for.

Question reference: S6W-40569

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 29 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out of the reported decision by some EU member states to reverse their previous policy and expand nuclear power, and what assessment it has made of any implications of this for Scotland’s energy policy.

The Scottish Government position remains - new nuclear under current technologies, which includes small modular reactors, is very expensive and takes decades to deliver, creating a legacy of radioactive waste which is difficult and costly to manage. Instead, we are focussed on supporting growth and creating jobs by capitalising on Scotland’s immense renewable energy capacity rather than expensive new nuclear.

Question reference: S6W-40570

Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 29 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has commissioned on the potential role of small modular reactors in Scotland’s future energy mix.