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-41853

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
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.

Question reference: S6W-41852

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2025
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.

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: 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.

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.

Question reference: S6O-05183

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2025
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.

Question reference: S6W-41441

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 October 2025
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.

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.

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-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-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-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.