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: S7W-01818

Asked by: Joe Long, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its latest assessment is of vacancy rates for consultant psychiatrist posts across NHS Scotland, and what impact current levels of vacancies are having on patient (a) care and (b) safety, workforce sustainability and service delivery.

Question reference: S7W-01820

Asked by: Joe Long, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what, if any, plans it has to introduce a phased transition towards ensuring that all locum consultant psychiatrist posts are held by doctors on the General Medical Council Specialist Register, including support for existing locum doctors to obtain the necessary qualifications and remain within the NHS workforce.

Question reference: S7W-01819

Asked by: Joe Long, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 17 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce national guidance on which clinicians are entitled to use the title “consultant psychiatrist”, including in locum roles, and when any such guidance will be issued to NHS boards.

Question reference: S7W-01775

Asked by: Joe Long, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 17 July 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 14 August 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the UK Foundation medical training programme, what information it has regarding whether (a) any reserve list places are being made available in Scotland to applicants and (b) the full quota of places in Scotland, including the 72 additional places previously announced, has been made available to eligible doctors.

Question reference: S7O-00102

Asked by: Joe Long, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the number of people with learning disabilities and complex needs who remain in inappropriate hospital placements, eight years on from its report, Coming Home.

Question reference: S7W-00801

Asked by: Joe Long, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 16 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve access to self-referral pathways to support good mental health and wellbeing.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of empowering people to manage their mental health and wellbeing, and that access to trustworthy digital advice, resources and psychological therapies is critical to this.

Our wellbeing website, Mind to Mind, offers mental health and wellbeing advice, as well as signposting information to wider mental health support, using short videos from people with mental health conditions. NHS Inform also holds self-help guides on mental health conditions to help people recognise what they may be struggling with and providing guidance on when to seek appropriate support for their needs.

Over 2025-26 we invested £3.7 million in Breathing Space- a free, confidential phone and webchat service for anyone over 16 who is struggling with their mental health and wellbeing. We also invested £11 million to the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub which provides compassionate advice and support to people seeking urgent help with their mental health (with around 10,000 calls per month).

An expansion of the Hub launched in December 2025, to provide a national pathway to brief psychological interventions for those would benefit from early treatment but would not meet the criteria to access local specialist secondary care mental health services. This is providing treatment from professionals appropriately trained in psychological practice. It is helping to improve early identification of the need for support and timely access to early intervention support to prevent mental health issues escalating, support for life events, and to help people cope with physical health conditions.

We also continue to expand the range of self-referral digital therapies for people with anxiety, depression or insomnia, and have increased access to internet enabled cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) so people can speak to a mental health professional online. There were over 77,000 referrals to digital therapies last year.

Alongside digital support, it is positive to see new models of accessible mental health support in communities and we are committed to expanding access to community-based mental health hubs over this Parliamentary term.

Finally, as we work with partners to design and implement the service renewal framework across mental health, we will reflect on our current self-referral offers and consider where else we can provide safe and effective self-referral support.

Question reference: S7O-00082

Asked by: Joe Long, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 June 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason over a third of CAMHS referrals have reportedly not been accepted in the last 12 months.

Question reference: S7W-00800

Asked by: Joe Long, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 June 2026
Current Status: Answered by Alison Thewliss on 8 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on when unpaid carers will be able to access a right to breaks, as set out in the Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025.

The date for this legislation going live has yet to be decided. Our consultation on the approach to implementation closed on 22 May and we aim to publish a report on responses within 12 weeks.

Preparation for implementation is being supported by the Right to Breaks Implementation Steering Group, involving unpaid carer representatives as well as statutory and third sector organisations.

In the meantime, local authorities already have responsibilities to promote a variety of short breaks in their areas and carers who meet local eligibility criteria can continue to access short break support in accordance with their rights under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016. Additionally, we are providing £13m in 2026-27 for the voluntary sector Short Breaks Fund which enables unpaid carers to benefit from a wide variety of easy-access short breaks.