- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 26 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it collects data on which dental practices currently provide preventative treatment for children, and, if so, whether all dental practices currently offer such treatment.
Answer
NHS dental preventive care delivery is recorded at population level. Public Health Scotland stats for the quarter to June 2025 NHS dental data monitoring report - Quarter ending June 2025 - NHS dental data monitoring report - Publications - Public Health Scotland show that over half a million enhanced preventive care (including Childsmile) was delivered to NHS dental patients. All patients, including Children may receive preventive advice from the dentist based on the clinical need for such guidance to be provided when visiting the practice.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 26 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 7 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of the closure of the Alloa campus of Forth Valley College on (a) students and (b) staff.
Answer
While colleges are responsible for their own operational matters, such as their campus footprint, they must consider the needs of the people, region, and the communities they serve. This includes students and staff, for whom I recognise this is a worrying time.
As Forth Valley College’s campus in Alloa plays a vital role in providing access to services for the people in that community, Ministers are keen that everything possible is done to keep the campus open.
- Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 26 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many children under the age of 16 have been admitted to an NHS hospital for a tooth extraction as a result of tooth decay in each of the past five years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The member may wish to contact NHS Boards directly for this information.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what contingency plans are in place should the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme not achieve its expected (a) uptake and (b) outcomes, and what anonymised, regular datasets on this it plans to publish to support scrutiny of progress towards meeting these.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40638 on 7 October 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what subjects were discussed at the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy's meeting with the Chief Financial Officer of SSEN Transmission on 17 March 2025, including whether any live or prospective electricity transmission consent applications were referenced, and which projects these were.
Answer
I was invited to attend the event at the Had Fab factory to celebrate the awarding of a non-government contract by SSEN to partner companies to manufacture pylons. This represented significant investment in Scotland’s manufacturing and supply chain.
There was no agenda item to discuss live or prospective electricity transmission consent applications.
The Ministerial Code clearly states that “the Planning Minister or any other Minister involved in the planning decision, must do nothing which might be seen as prejudicial to that process, particularly in advance of the decision being taken. Action that might be viewed as being prejudicial includes expressing an opinion publicly on a particular case which is before, or may subsequently be referred to, the Minister(s) for decision”.
It also states that a Minister cannot comment on decisions once they have been issued, other than in terms of what has appeared in the decision letter.
Any meetings that Ministers have with network companies are part of ongoing engagement with industry and follow the same principle.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many Energy Skills Passport registrations there have been in each month since the pilot scheme was launched on 22 January 2025, also broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) how many passport users have had at least one login to the system each month.
Answer
The Energy Skills Passport is an industry led project, and the Scottish Government does not hold detailed information on operational matters. For such queries, we recommend directly contacting the lead industry bodies - Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) and RenewableUK (RUK).
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to achieve employer recognition and use of the Energy Skills Passport pilot scheme among offshore operators, wind developers and tier-one contractors.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40625 on 7 October 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the guidance suggesting that such a survey should be carried out every five years, for what reason a reported 120 schools are not recorded as having a suitability survey since 2009 or earlier in its School Estate Statistics 2025.
Answer
It is the statutory responsibility of authorities to manage their school estate, and we expect them to undertake suitability surveys at least every 5 years, in line with the suitability reporting core facts guidance which the Scottish Government co-produced with local authorities.
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the guidance suggesting that schools should have such a survey every five years, for what reason a reported 34 schools are recorded as not having had a condition survey since 2015 or earlier in its School Estate Statistics 2025.
Answer
It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate, and we expect them to undertake condition surveys at least every 5 years, in line with the condition reporting core facts guidance which the Scottish Government co-produced with local authorities.
In situations where schools were built under PPP (Public-Private Partnerships), PFI (Private finance initiative) or similar arrangements which included school maintenance contracts, local authorities report that the buildings are monitored and maintained by a third party.
It is local authorities’ responsibility to ensure schools built under such arrangements continue to be maintained to a sufficiently high standard, given the maintenance contract that will be in place.
- Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 7 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) it and (b) its agencies has spent on promotion through social media influencers in each year since 2021.
Answer
(a) Details of Scottish Government spend on promotion through social media influencers in each year since 2021 to date are as follows.
Year | Spend (£) |
2021 | 63,746.20 |
2022 | 30,930.00 |
2023 | 19,900.00 |
2024 | 13,640.00 |
2025 | 52,800.00 |
These services are procured by the Scottish Government marketing team via the Scottish Government Marketing Services Framework.
All marketing agencies Scottish Government work with, including those which provide influencer services, must successfully tender through the Scottish Government's Marketing Services Framework. This comprehensive process evaluates their capability, experience and value for money before they can be approved as suppliers. The framework ensures Scottish Government only works with established agencies that meet Scottish Government’s procurement standards and legal requirements.
Scottish Government’s approved framework agencies manage influencer relationships on our behalf. They conduct thorough due diligence checks on potential influencers, including comprehensive reviews of their social media history to identify any content that could constitute hate crimes or bring the Scottish Government into disrepute. This vetting process follows the same rigorous standards used across UK Government communications, as outlined in the GCS guidelines for influencer marketing.
This process ensures anyone who is used as an influencer within a marketing campaign is appropriate to that campaign’s strategy, audience, message and objectives.
b) Scottish Government does not have access to wider agency spend on influencers and is therefore unable to confirm how much its agencies have spent on promotion through social media influencers in each year since 2021.