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-41706

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that people with cleft lips or cleft palates are able to access appropriate dental treatment.

Question reference: S6W-41670

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the forthcoming expansion of the Armed Forces Covenant, which might include an expansion into early years and childcare, what discussions it has had with local authorities to ensure armed forces families are able to access childcare in their area.

Question reference: S6W-41667

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the forthcoming expansion of the Armed Forces Covenant, which might include an expansion into social care, what discussions it has had with (a) local authorities and (b) health and social care partnerships to ensure that the covenant is embedded in social care.

Question reference: S6W-41668

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the forthcoming expansion of the Armed Forces Covenant, which might include an expansion into criminal justice, what discussions it has had with the Scottish (a) Courts and Tribunals Service and (b) Prisons Service to embed the covenant throughout its services.

Question reference: S6W-41669

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 November 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 18 November 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the forthcoming expansion of the Armed Forces Covenant, which might include an expansion into early years and childcare, what discussions it has had with the Care Inspectorate to ensure that it considers the covenant in its inspections.

Question reference: S6W-41057

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 31 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to introducing a paid expedited Protecting Vulnerable Groups application service under Disclosure Scotland, in light of reported delays impacting businesses' and voluntary organisations' operations.

Disclosure Scotland’s fees are set by secondary legislation and do not provide for offering an expedited service at additional cost. This ensures that all customers receive the same level of service.

Disclosure Scotland’s Service Level Agreement (SLA) is to process 90% of applications within 14 days. For week commencing 6 October, the average processing time for all applications was 7.4 days with 97.46% of applications completed within 14 days.

Disclosure Scotland has historically exceeded its SLA of 90% of applications processed within 14 days. In 2023-2024, 95.3% of applications were completed within 14 days and in 2024-2025, 97.7% within 14 days.

A paid expedited service would not improve response times where applications are delayed due to further information being required from third parties.

Question reference: S6W-41056

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 31 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support is available for businesses and voluntary organisations impacted by the reported Protecting Vulnerable Groups scheme processing delays.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Disclosure Scotland is currently performing back within its service level agreement to process 90% of applications within 14 days.

Improvements have been made to the employer dashboard so that accredited bodies can check the processing status of an application without the need to contact Disclosure Scotland directly.

Disclosure Scotland regularly engages with customers to support them in understanding their rights and responsibilities in relation to disclosure and the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme. To stay up to date on changes at Disclosure Scotland, we encourage customers to sign up to our quarterly newsletter or read it on our website. We also provide workshops to assist organisations in understanding regulated roles, their duty to refer and the practical and legal processes involved in countersigning disclosure applications. Our dedicated Customer Engagement team is also available to provide one to one advice and support to organisations who need it.

In response to user feedback, Disclosure Scotland has improved its regulated roles guidance and developed specific guidance for parent-run groups, sports organisations and health services.

Volunteer Scotland Disclosure Services (VSDS) are funded by the Scottish Government to help voluntary sector organisations process applications and provide advice, guidance and training.

Question reference: S6W-41046

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates that it will publish its health and social care winter preparedness plan for 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-41055

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 28 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it gave to the staffing levels at Disclosure Scotland prior to the introduction of the Scottish Statutory Instruments under the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020, which introduced a requirement for all employees in regulated roles to obtain a new Protecting Vulnerable Groups disclosure for each new employer, and removed the previous provision that allowed supervised working while checks were pending.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

There has never been a provision in law for supervised working while organisations were waiting to obtain a Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme record. Until 1 April 2025, the PVG scheme was not a legal requirement therefore organisations could choose to have people in regulated work without seeing PVG scheme membership.

In forecasting volumes resultant from the legal requirement to be in the PVG scheme if carrying out a regulated role, Disclosure Scotland expected 50,000 additional applications against normal levels and diverted 10 full-time equivalent staff from other areas of the business to help manage delivering disclosure processing and support services. Planning included that, from 1 April onwards, application volumes and resources were monitored daily through checkpoint meetings to enable timely decision-making.

Within normal resource, Disclosure Scotland has historically exceeded its Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 90% of applications processed within 14 days. In 2023-24, 95.3% of applications were completed within 14 days and in 2024-25, 97.7% within 14 days.

Disclosure Scotland is currently performing within its SLA to process 90% of applications within 14 days.

Question reference: S6W-41054

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 28 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) average, (b) median and (c) longest processing time has been for Protecting Vulnerable Groups disclosures in each month since January 2025 to date.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Month PVG application completed in	Average processing time (days)	Median processing time (days)	Longest processing time (days)
January 2025	8.1	7.6	40.3
February 2025	8.5	8.5	30.9
March 2025	8.9	8.8	44.9
April 2025	10.5	10.9	54.6
May 2025	11.7	11.8	66.0
June 2025	12.5	12.0	57.7
July 2025	16.1	12.1	84.6
August 2025	11.8	10.0	95.0
September 2025	7.6	6.8	88.5

Note 1: The processing time for Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) applications presented from 1 April 2025 onwards, with the implementation of the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020, represents the total of: Level 2 PVG scheme disclosure (Join), Level 2 PVG scheme disclosure (Existing), Confirmation of PVG scheme membership (Join) and Confirmation of PVG scheme membership (Existing). Prior to 1 April 2025 the processing time for PVG applications represents the total of: Scheme Record Disclosure, Short Scheme Record Disclosure, Existing Scheme Record Disclosure and Statements of Scheme Membership.

Note 2: A completed application incorporates all time between an application being received by Disclosure Scotland, through to completion with a disclosure issued to the applicant. Disclosure Scotland deducts any time which the application was suspended on our system, such as, being suspended for customer contact. Please note, weekend days are included in the number of processing days for applications, but national holidays and Scottish Government public and privilege holidays are excluded.

Note 3: The figures reflect the month in which applications are completed and not the month in which they are received. Not all applications will be issued in the same month in which they are received.