- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 18 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.
Answer
The National Cleft Surgical Service for Scotland (NCSSS) is hosted within NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and provides surgical, psychological and cleft specialist nursing input for the management of children with Cleft Lip and/or Palate.
Cleft Care Scotland (CCS) is part of this, and is NHS Scotland's nationally commissioned cleft service and provides multidisciplinary assessment, surgical treatment and ongoing support via specialist teams. There are specific dental treatment pathways within this ensuring that people are seen regularly for check-ups and reviews, with this service provided by the Public Dental Service in each Health Board.
Anyone at any age affected by cleft can be referred or re-referred to CCS. People who have had corrective surgery, or are not currently under the care of the CCS, can also receive the full range of NHS treatment under the General Dental Service.
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes 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.
Answer
The Care Inspectorate takes account of any national policy change, where it is appropriate to do so, when carrying out its regulatory and inspection function. The forthcoming expansion of the Armed Forces Covenant would therefore be considered if it required an expansion of early learning and childcare.
Scottish Ministers are highly supportive of the aims of the Armed Forces Covenant and the commitment of organisations across Scotland to build enhanced support for the Armed Forces community and foster better integration between the community and the Armed Forces.
Officials have been in contact with MOD on the extension of the Covenant Duty and look forward to receiving more detail from UK Ministers and considering further in due course.
As part of the expansion of funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) to 1140 hours, local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure that there is a funded place available for all eligible children in their area.
Under the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004, education authorities are responsible for identifying and meeting the additional support needs of children in ELC settings, which includes children from Armed Forces families.
In line with the National Standard for Early Learning and Childcare Providers we expect local authorities and settings to work together to support to support all children, including those with additional support needs, to access their funded ELC entitlement.
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur 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.
Answer
Ministers regularly meet with local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships where a spectrum of issues are discussed. However, there have been no specific meetings at this stage to discuss the expansion of the Armed Forces Covenant into social care.
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance 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.
Answer
We welcome the UK Government’s announcement to expand the Armed Forces Covenant into further areas of Government activity including criminal justice. We note it is planned by the UK Government to provide for the necessary legislative detail for this approach in their next Armed Forces Bill in 2026. This Bill is not yet published and we will consider carefully the full details once they are available. This further detail will help inform engagement with justice partners including Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and the Scottish Prison Service.
We have already engaged with criminal justice agencies on how best to meet the need of veterans within custody following the ‘Veterans and Law’ report, which was published in October 2024. This included recommendations relating to identifying and supporting veterans as they move through the criminal justice system, with a coordinated, easy to access approach to support them alongside third sector organisations to help prevent offending and support rehabilitation.
We remain committed to working with criminal justice partners to further explore opportunities to help support veterans in the future, including as part of the forthcoming expansion of the Armed Forces Covenant.
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 27 November 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-41171 by Gillian Martin on 27 October 2025, whether the Energy Consents Unit employs AI in its processes for dealing with representations by members of the public and, if not, whether it plans to do so.
Answer
Answer expected on 27 November 2025
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 27 November 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-41171 by Gillian Martin on 27 October 2025, what the estimated cost is for the Energy Consents Unit to process a representation from a member of the public, also broken down by the time taken to do so.
Answer
Answer expected on 27 November 2025
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 13 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.
Answer
The Scottish Government remains committed to delivering the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant - that serving personnel and their families should face no disadvantage in accessing support and services in comparison to the civilian population as a result of their service.
Government officials have engaged with representatives of service families to understand their experience of living and working in Scotland, including access to childcare. At a local authority level, there has been particular engagement with Moray Council, to understand availability of childcare in the rural area around RAF Lossiemouth, and the impact this has on the ability to attract and retain service personnel.
This year, SG and MOD have participated in a short life working group convened by the local authority, which focuses on the school age childcare needs of all communities across Moray, identifying priorities for growth and development, test of change projects and community engagement. This has provided opportunity for the specific needs of service families to be heard and addressed.
More broadly, local authorities have statutory duties to consult and plan childcare provision locally in order to help them ensure the provision within their area reflects local needs, which would include the particular needs of service families. Scottish Government will be contacting local authorities in due course to set out planned changes to the Armed Forces Covenant and policies which will be impacted, including childcare.
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 20 November 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support the growth of the domestic supply chain for energy infrastructure.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 20 November 2025
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 October 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 11 November 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-40975 by Jenni Minto on 21 October 2025, whether it has completed a risk assessment and evaluated any liabilities of independent prescriber pharmacists not having read/write access to patient records in 2026.
Answer
The Scottish Government has not undertaken a risk assessment or evaluation of the liabilities of pharmacist independent prescribers who do not have read/write access to patient records. However, other organisations make clear the clinical and professional expectations required to support all prescribers, including pharmacist independent prescribers, to work safely and effectively.
All qualified pharmacist independent prescribers must adhere to robust policies, competency frameworks and requirements, as set out by Health Boards, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), the pharmacy regulator, and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), the professional leadership body. For every prescribing consultation, pharmacist independent prescribers must use their professional judgement and take into account the person’s best interests to decide whether they have the information they need to prescribe safely.
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2025
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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.
Answer
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.
