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-41053

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 its position is on reintroducing supervised working for individuals with a pending Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) disclosure from Disclosure Scotland, in light of reported delays in PVG processing.

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.

The Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 introduced a legal requirement for organisations to receive a Level 2 with PVG scheme information before a person can carry out a regulated role for them. This was in response to the 2017 Health and Sport Committee report into Child Protection in Sport which noted serious concerns that “the application of the current PVG scheme results in variations in practice as to whether coaches can work/volunteer in a limited capacity without a PVG check having been completed”.

The changes under the Disclosure Act closed this gap which undermined public confidence in the PVG scheme and safeguarding of children and protected adults.

Question reference: S6W-41175

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Energy Consents Unit formally recognises any external organisation providing paid or unpaid support to facilitate the submission of public objections to energy developments, and, if so, what form this recognition takes.

Question reference: S6W-41172

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the policy of the Energy Consents Unit is in regard to the treatment of objections submitted by multiple members of the public using template-based text.

Question reference: S6W-41174

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the policy of the Energy Consents Unit is in regard to the treatment of objections submitted by members of the public in which the content appears to have been generated using artificial intelligence.

Question reference: S6W-41171

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the policy of the Energy Consents Unit is in regard to the treatment of objections submitted by members of the public.

All material considerations raised in representations and submitted by members of the public are carefully considered before reaching a decision on the application.

This is the case whether or not a representation has been created using template-based text, submitted individually or collectively, generated with the use of Artificial Intelligence, or is close to identical to other representations.

The submission of representations is the most effective means for communities to provide their views on an application, and helps to promote transparency and accountability in the decision-making process.

Question reference: S6W-41173

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the policy of the Energy Consents Unit is in regard to the treatment of objections submitted by multiple members of the public containing substantially identical text and only minor, non-substantive, alterations.

Question reference: S6W-41176

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 27 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance the Energy Consents Unit applies to distinguish between joint or template-based and individual objections to developments.

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: Answer expected on 19 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.

Question reference: S6W-40975

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 21 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-38600 by Jenni Minto on 19 June 2025, what assessment it has made of any potential risk to patients from independent prescriber pharmacists not having read/write access to patient records in 2026.

The Scottish Government remains committed to collaborate with key partners across the NHS in Scotland to ensure that relevant information, with the appropriate safeguards in place, is available to all healthcare professionals, including community pharmacists, when and where they need it. The Scottish Government is continuing to explore the possibility of granting further access to clinical records. Health Boards continue to work with community pharmacists prescribers to ensure the safe and effective prescribing of medicines.

The Digital Health & Care Strategy, published 2021, sets out ambitions for greater access to medical information both for staff and the public. In the medium to longer term, as part of the Digital Health & Care strategy, a National Digital Platform is being developed and has started to bring together service data that is appropriately accessible to the workforce regardless of where they are based.

Question reference: S6W-41064

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 21 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of flu in the winter 2024-25 period on NHS staff absence rates, and how this compares with the (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19, (c) 2022-23 and (d) 2023-24 period.

The Scottish Government receives NHS Scotland sickness absence management information on a fortnightly basis, but this data does not include detailed absence reasons. This sickness absence data enables us to review and compare against the known seasonal pattern, with generally higher sickness absence in the winter months commonly caused by cold and flu.

Furthermore, management information is collected by NES on individual level absence which contains detailed absence reasons, including a cold, cough and flu category. NES have been developing this data to enable more detailed analysis.