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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-40979

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 14 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what functionality and specific services the MyCare.scot app will have and provide in April 2026.

Question reference: S6W-40828

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 September 2025
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.

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.

Question reference: S6W-40827

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on which commitments made in the Oral Health Improvement Plan (a) have been delivered to date and (b) remain outstanding.

The Oral Health Improvement Plan (OHIP) remains a relevant and important cornerstone of NHS dental services policy in Scotland. Significant progress has been made on the commitments from the OHIP since its publication, including through the introduction of payment reform in November 2023.

Our recently published Operational Improvement Plan sets out this Government’s current ambitions to further improve NHS dental services both now and into the future, supported by new funding in 2025-26. The Plan can be viewed at

https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-scotland-operational-improvement-plan/.

Question reference: S6W-40830

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many accredited general dental practitioners have provided routine preventative care in care homes in each of the past five years, and how many unique patients have received such care in each year.

The Scottish Government does not hold a central list of accredited general dental practitioners providing preventive advice in care homes. All such advice is included within the overall Public Health statistics, as noted in S6W-40828 on 7 October 2025. The introduction of payment reform in November 2023 precludes comparable figures for each of the last five years; information may be available in previously published Public Health Scotland releases. Public Health Statistics published to end quarter March 2025 provide NHS dental data monitoring report - Quarter ending March 2025 - NHS dental data monitoring report - Publications - Public Health Scotland an overview of the post reform performance across the 2024-25 financial year which indicate that around 12,000 Domiciliary and Recalled Attendance visits were undertaken by dentists in that year.

Question reference: S6W-40829

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 September 2025
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.

Question reference: S6F-04374

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 October 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 October 2025

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to reports that the mental health budget has been reduced in the 2025-26 Autumn Budget Revision.

Question reference: S6F-04327

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 September 2025

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to reports that proposed changes to the counting method for NHS waiting lists will result in numbers falling despite no more patients being seen.

Question reference: S6W-40200

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the announcement that the chickenpox vaccine will be offered on the NHS in the UK from January 2026, what consideration it has given to adding the chickenpox vaccine to its standard childhood vaccination programme.

Question reference: S6F-04284

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 September 2025

To ask the First Minister what urgent steps the Scottish Government is taking in response to reports that nursing and midwifery vacancies have risen by 60% in six months.

Question reference: S6W-39792

Asked by: Brian Whittle, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) it and (b) Public Health Scotland (i) budgeted for and (ii) spent in each of the last three years running (A) mass and (B) social media campaigns to raise smokers’ awareness of the (1) Quit Your Way cessation services delivered by NHS boards and (2) health benefits and financial savings that might be achieved through quitting, broken down by how many people made enquiries or sought support, and how much it has (aa) budgeted for and (bb) spent so far in 2025-26, broken down by the (AA) current and (BB) expected uptake.

We do not set an annual budget for marketing campaigns for smoking cessation and this would form part of the overall budget for tobacco and smoking, which since 2023-24 has been £2.93 million. The Scottish Government ran Community Pharmacy poster campaigns promoting the free Quit Your Way Scotland (QYWS) service in 2022-23 (£15,288) and 2023-24 (£16,544). The initiative encouraged individuals to engage with their local pharmacists for tailored support and advice on quitting smoking. As part of the implementation of the Tobacco and Vaping Framework we committed to continue to support, promote and review Community Pharmacy cessation campaigns.

A series of campaigns led by Public Health Scotland (PHS) have also promoted the QYWS. Including a national campaign in February 2024 to increase awareness of, and engagement with the free QYWS service and, most recently, an organic social media campaign in August 2025 to raise awareness among pregnant women, their partners, and families of the support available to quit smoking. Spend and evaluation for PHS’ campaigns are not held centrally.

The Scottish Government does not have data on the number of enquiries or support sought as a result of these awareness raising campaigns.

The Scottish Government provides funding annually to Health Boards for smoking cessation and prevention services as part of a wider Outcomes Framework allocation, whereby budget is provided to Health Boards to cover a range of outcomes. It is up to Health Boards to decide how much of this funding to allocate to each outcome. The published Scottish Budget for 2025-26 includes £72.2 million for the Outcomes Framework.

In 2023-24 PHS statistics from NHS Stop Smoking Services showed there were 30,319 attempts to stop smoking, a 12.4% increase from 2022-23. Data is not yet available for 2025-26.