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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.

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Question reference: S6W-36611

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what role the Thistle safer drug consumption facility plays in providing information to Police Scotland about contaminated drugs.

The Thistle does not provide a drug checking service and it does not collect validated information about contaminated drugs. When concerns are raised, for example due to unexpected adverse events, these are reported to the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Drug Trends Monitoring Group. This process is co-ordinated by Greater Glasgow and Clyde Public Health and is a multi-agency group including Police Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-36244

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many postgraduate medicine training places in Scotland are occupied by people who (a) studied as undergraduates in (i) Scotland and (ii) the rest of the UK, (b) are UK citizens and (C) have been granted permanent UK residency.

Question reference: S6W-36241

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether its commitment to ensure "that by March 2026 no one is waiting longer than a year for their new outpatient appointment or inpatient/day-case procedure" includes people on waiting lists for mental health services and neurodevelopmental conditions.

The additional £100 million investment contained in the Budget to reduce waiting times will create 150,000 extra appointments and procedures for elective services. This does not include mental health or neurodevelopmental services.

Improving mental health remains an absolute priority for the Scottish Government and whilst we recognise the ongoing pressures facing the NHS, long waits are unacceptable and we remain committed to supporting Boards to meet the standard that 90% of patients start treatment within 18 weeks of referral for both CAMHS and Psychological Therapies (PT). Currently Psychological Therapies (PT) services are responding well to demand, with one in two people referred starting treatment within three weeks. And in CAMHS, the national performance against the 18-week standard is the best performance ever reported since the standard was introduced in 2014 with 89.1% of patients starting treatment within 18 weeks of referral in the last quarter.

We do not have a treatment time target for neurodevelopmental services. Our key focus is on improving support. The Neurodevelopmental specification aims to ensure that children and families receive the support and access to services that meet their needs at the earliest opportunity.

Despite the progress made across the system, we are not complacent and we remain committed to supporting all Boards to meet the standards and to clear long waiting lists. Performance does still vary across Health Boards, and we continue to provide enhanced support to those Boards not on track to meet the standard, providing access to professional advice, ensuring they have robust improvement plans in place and monitoring their implementation.

Question reference: S6W-36610

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 10 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what data it collects regarding the level of abandoned drug paraphernalia in the vicinity of the Thistle safer drug consumption facility.

The Thistle operates like any other NHS facility, working closely with community safety partners to prevent and address antisocial behaviour, including the abandonment of drug paraphernalia. While the Scottish Government does not directly collect data on this, local partners such as Glasgow City Council and Police Scotland monitor and report on related public safety concerns. For example, the Council records incidents of discarded needles, and in 2024 Police Scotland reported the disposal of approximately 5,000 needles across two city locations. This data is used by local agencies as part of a coordinated approach to ensure safety.

Question reference: S6W-36010

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 31 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on continuing the treatment of people who move to Scotland from abroad with an existing diagnosis and treatment plan, where such treatment is approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, as opposed to requiring their condition to be investigated and diagnosed anew in line with NHS Scotland pathways.

When a patient moves to Scotland from abroad with an existing diagnosis and treatment plan, and where such treatment is approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, clinicians will make a decision whether to reassess the patient to ensure it is safe to go ahead with their existing treatment plan.

Patients with an urgent clinical need will always be prioritised.

In all cases, we expect Health Boards to make every effort to ensure equity of care and that any disruptions to the patient’s journey are minimised.

Question reference: S6O-04454

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is sufficiently resourced to provide appropriate planning guidance or able to respond to planning consultations when required.

Question reference: S6O-04431

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its reported positive impact on educational attainment, how it ensures that the education system provides pupils with a wide range of opportunities to participate in sport.

Question reference: S6O-04405

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that the process for approving renewable energy developments above 50MW encourages developers to carry out high-quality consultations and gives communities sufficient information and opportunity to engage meaningfully.

Question reference: S6F-03839

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 February 2025

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to support farmers responding to threats to livestock from disease.

Question reference: S6W-33999

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 4 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support local authorities dealing with specialist planning applications, such as those involving quarrying or mining where no identifiable expertise exists within the local authority planning department.

The Scottish Government is working with stakeholders, on a package of actions to strengthen a range of planning skills across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has established the Hydrogen Planning Hub and the Housing Emergency Hub in response to concerns about capacity and skills. We are currently considering the further role that Hubs can play in supporting planning authorities to address the skills and capacity issues they are facing.

In our Planning and Housing Emergency Delivery Plan, published in November 2024, we have committed to the roll out of a co-ordinated skills and recruitment drive through a coherent National Planning Skills Campaign. We will announce this work soon and deliver it over the coming months.