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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-43538

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 12 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-43309 by Gillian Martin on 3 February 2026, whether it will provide the information that was requested and confirm how many times the Energy Consents Unit has contacted the Children’s Rights Unit to request a consultation or advice regarding any impacts on children.

Question reference: S6W-43595

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its decision to not fully fund the social care pay uplift from the real Living Wage 2025-26 to the real Living Wage 2026-27 in its draft Budget 2026-27, who it has asked to fund the gap in pay for wholly commissioned public services.

Question reference: S6W-43592

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what potential risks to supported people and jobs it considered before deciding to change the baseline calculation for the social care commissioned services pay uplift for 2026-27, and what mitigations it put in place to address any such risks.

Question reference: S6W-43593

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding the calculations provided by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) that to uplift pay in commissioned services from the real Living Wage in 2025-26 to that for 2026-27 would cost more than has been allocated in the draft Budget and amounts to a shortfall of £15 million for adult social care and £4 million for children’s social care and early learning and childcare.

Question reference: S6W-43594

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it undertook with (a) commissioned providers, (b) local government and (c) health and social care partnerships regarding proposals to change the social care commissioned services pay uplift baseline for 2026-27, in advance of the publication of the draft Budget 2026-27.

Question reference: S6W-43597

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what it expects the impact will be of its decision to not cover the full costs of paying the real Living Wage in commissioned public services on its commitments to deliver both Fair Work and ethical commissioning.

Question reference: S6O-05511

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what training Social Security Scotland staff receive in supporting disabled people to be physically active.

Question reference: S6W-43309

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 3 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many times the Energy Consents Unit has contacted the Children’s Rights Unit to request a consultation or advice regarding any impacts on children.

Question reference: S6W-43244

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 3 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-42938 by Neil Gray on 21 January 2026, what action it will take to address its inability to obtain this information, in light of the Audit Scotland report, Delayed discharges: A symptom of the challenges facing health and social care, which was published on 8 January 2026 and recommended that "the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), Healthcare Improvement Scotland, integration authorities and their partner NHS boards and councils, should...over the next 12 months, work together to develop and action an implementation plan to share learning and practice from digital solutions used for tackling delayed discharges, early intervention and prevention”.

As indicated in the answer to S6W-42938, spend on IT is a matter for NHS Boards and is not held centrally.

The member will be aware from the answer given to S6W-42937 on the 22 January 2026 that the Scottish Government welcomes Audit Scotland’s report and has asked the Collaborative Response and Assurance group to come together to consider these recommendations as a whole and develop a partnership approach to addressing them.

The Scottish Government remains committed to sharing learning and practice from digital solutions and will work with our partners to further develop this approach.

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.

Question reference: S6W-43243

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 3 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-42938 by Neil Gray on 21 January 2026, what its response is to concerns that the variation in both the approaches and systems in use across NHS boards to record this information might be detrimental to the effective delivery of health and social care across Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to maximising the use of data and technology to make services as modern, joined up and efficient as possible. This is reiterated in the Service Renewal Framework, Operational Improvement Plan, and the Population Health Framework which position Digital front and centre in realising the ambition to improve service delivery and outcomes for people.

We recognise the need for aligned digital infrastructure, systems and standards to be in place to ensure effective delivery of services. Further information on the actions we are taking can be found in our Digital Health and Care Strategy ,associated delivery plan-Care in the Digital Age Delivery Plan and our Health and Social Care Data Strategy.

Whilst our focus is interoperability, it is important that Health Boards are given flexibility to implement digital systems and approaches that best meet their needs.