Questions and answers

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 ��˿�� 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: S6O-05335

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made any assessment of recent prison inspection findings on the use of restricted regimes and their impact on prisoners’ welfare and safety.

Question reference: S6W-42271

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-41852 by Gillian Martin on 25 November 2025, whether it will provide the (a) lowest, (b) highest, (c) median and (d) mean figure for the (i) cost and (ii) time taken for the Energy Consents Unit to process a representation from a member of the public in respect of an application, in 2025.

As previously stated in the answer to S6W-41852, the processing of a representation requires multiple members of staff of the Energy Consents Unit to undertake a combination of detailed administrative tasks. The time and cost taken to process representations vary depending on the nature, size and complexity of each submission, as well as the total number of representations received for an application.

It is therefore not possible to provide average processing timescales and costs that would accurately portray the work undertaken by Scottish Government officials to administer representations submitted by the public.

As previously stated in the answers to S6W-41171 and S6W-41175 on 27 October 2025, all submissions received by the ECU are treated in the same manner, irrespective of the application or the sender of the representation. All material considerations raised in representations are carefully considered before reaching a decision on the relevant application.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Question reference: S6W-42272

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 16 December 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-41852 by Gillian Martin on 25 November 2025, what the (a) estimated cost and (b) average time taken is for the Energy Consents Unit to process a representation generated by the Object Now service in relation to the Kintore-Tealing overhead line development.

Question reference: S6W-42578

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the inclusion of dentistry within the MyCare.scot app roll-out.

Question reference: S6W-42580

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to bringing forward a national pathway for interstitial lung disease.

Question reference: S6W-42579

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to improving post-diagnosis support of people with interstitial lung disease, particularly in rural areas, and what role it believes the third sector has to play in providing those services.

Question reference: S6W-42577

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that data relating to the dental workforce in Scotland is collected and reported on a whole-time equivalent basis, in order to provide more accurate assessment of clinical capacity and not solely headcount figures.

Question reference: S6W-42581

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the workforce required to deliver lung function testing and scanning.

Question reference: S6W-42575

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any benefit of physical activity for disabled people.

Question reference: S6W-42576

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to develop the role of enhanced or Tier Two dental practitioners within NHS Scotland, and whether it will set out for such practitioners (a) a process for recruitment and training, (b) a national model or system to support their clinical operation, (c) how it will identify areas of greatest population need for their deployment, and (d) clinical guidance defining the scope of treatment they will undertake and what patients will be referred onward to specialist services.