Hansard

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

25 Mar 2026

Portfolio Question Time · Accident and Emergency Departments (Waiting Times)

I place on record my thanks to all the hard-working NHS staff, including those in A and E. The excess deaths that are associated with long waiting times in A and E departments do not lie at their door but are the fault of the system that has been created.With that in mind, doe...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

25 Mar 2026

Portfolio Question Time · Food Security and Resilience

That was an interesting question from Mr Harvie, as the Scottish Greens have spent the majority of this session of Parliament demonising our farmers and food producers.Rather than relying on imported food, which increases our carbon emissions, how is the Scottish Government su...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

25 Mar 2026

Remote, Rural and Island Communities (Sustainability)

It is a pleasure to follow Beatrice Wishart, who, as we all know, has been a real champion for her communities in the time that she has spent here. I also pay tribute to my friend and colleague Oliver Mundell, who has shown us what a constituency MSP should be, and to John Mas...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

25 Mar 2026

Mobile Phone Use in Schools (Ban)

I thank my colleague Pam Gosal not only for bringing this important debate to the chamber, but for telling me what I need to speak about for the next four minutes.We are all very aware of the significant impact on health that the use of social media and smartphones can have, e...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

25 Mar 2026

First Minister’s Question Time

The First Minister will know about my passionate belief that sport is a force for good in our communities. Declining physical literacy levels among our children are directly linked to increasingly poor health outcomes in Scotland, and I say that as a performance coach of some ...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

24 Mar 2026

Sport and Activity as a Force for Good

I have been warned.My passion lies in the firm belief that education is the solution to health and welfare issues. By education, I mean not only academia but coaching in sport, the arts, drama, music and any activity that can engage, enthuse and engender a passion in our young...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

18 Mar 2026

Point of Order

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I apologise to members for raising this point at this late hour. During finance and local government portfolio question time today, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government stated:“If there are members in the chamber who th...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

18 Mar 2026

Portfolio Question Time · Health and Social Care Partnerships (Budget 2026-27)

As we have heard, East Ayrshire faces a staggering £10 million health and social care budget gap next year. To mitigate that, the council will be forced into management actions, including reducing care home capacity and re-evaluating care packages to find £5.6 million in savin...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

17 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill

On a topic on which many members are either vehemently opposed or passionately supportive, we have seen both sides seek to have a genuine, constructive and respectful debate on the substance of the bill. I commend colleagues across the chamber on both sides of that debate. I m...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

17 Mar 2026

Non-surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Bill

I rise to close the stage 3 debate on the Non-surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Bill on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives. This is a significant piece of legislation that seeks to bring much-needed order to two different yet equally vital are...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

17 Mar 2026

Non-surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

A number of businesses currently operate without a Healthcare Improvement Scotland licence. The bill will require such a licence for certain procedures, in relation to which one was not previously required. The concern is that there will be an increase in the number of applica...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

17 Mar 2026

Topical Question Time · Access to Dental Care (Adults)

Despite targets in the NHS Scotland recovery plan following Covid, tooth decay remains the primary reason for child hospital admissions, with more than 6,500 extractions under general aesthetic annually costing the NHS £8.4 million. That is an entirely preventable condition. E...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

13 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I press the amendment.Amendment 78, as amended, agreed to.Amendment 316 moved—Daniel Johnson.

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

13 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

On a similar point to one I made earlier, it is not the collection of data that we should be worried about. We can collect as much data as possible to be potentially deployed in the future. If we do not reach the threshold that the cabinet secretary indicates in relation to re...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

13 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Listening to Mr Doris speak to his amendments, it struck me that we have to be careful here. The collection of data in relation to the legislation should not be restricted, because we need the ability to interrogate it. If some of the data does not reach the threshold that is ...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I have been involved in two referenda and neither of the two of them resolved the matter at all. There is still considerable consternation from the losing sides, and they tend to move. I wonder whether that is really the best way to resolve such an issue.

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I am looking at the BMA’s assertion that doctors“should be trusted to use their professional judgement to decide when … a discussion about assisted dying would be appropriate”based on a patient’s cues. I have no idea what that means. What is a patient’s cue? Any cue should sur...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Bob Doris highlights a very important issue. In that particular situation, which I do not think will be unheard of, all that a doctor should be able to do is tell the patient about medical interventions that are possible—for pain relief or whatever else—until assisted dying is...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I am sorry to labour the point, but a “Do not resuscitate” order is different from someone saying, “I want to access assisted dying.” People have conversations about “Do not resuscitate” orders when they are going into complex medical procedures that might leave them incapacit...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Does Jeremy Balfour agree that there is no intention to restrict access to information and that what matters is how that information is initially initiated, if that is a phrase? The information would be there, if the patient requested it.

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I have had similar conversations about professional judgment, but that does not mean that the BMA is right or that we should accept that professional judgment should be initiated in that particular instance.I say again that the very act of introducing the idea of assisted dyin...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I will take the second question first. That is when the patient is at their most vulnerable. However, in my view, there are no circumstances in which assisted dying can be brought up by healthcare professionals.In answer to the first question, it concerns me that the British M...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Daniel Johnson and I are in complete agreement on this issue. The relationship between a doctor and a patient is unique and involves complete trust. It is my moral view that there is no situation in which a doctor should discuss assisted dying with a patient unless the patient...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

On a point of order, Presiding Officer, my voting app would not connect. I would have voted yes.

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

In the chamber, we often discuss the collection and interrogation of data and how important that is. When the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee was producing its report on the bill, we were looking for data from across the world. Liam McArthur’s amendments and Stephen Ke...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I apologise to the member—I just want clarity on that issue, because advocacy is paramount and crucial in the bill. On Bob Doris’s point on amendments 199 and 200, I want to clarify that the intention of the amendments is to ensure that people who seek assisted dying or consid...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Will the member give way?

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I am grateful to Ross Greer for taking my intervention, and I will support the amendment. The only thing that concerns me about amendment 200 is that, for a person to request an advocate, they must know and understand that the advocacy service is available to them. How would h...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Will the member take an intervention?

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

First Minister’s Question Time · Private Healthcare (NHS Consultants)

I thank the First Minister for that answer. However, much as I accept that people have a choice, I am concerned that more people are accessing private healthcare not out of choice but out of necessity, in the face of prolonged and painful waits for NHS care.The situation can o...

5. Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

12 Mar 2026

First Minister’s Question Time · Private Healthcare (NHS Consultants)

To ask the First Minister what assessment the Scottish Government has made of any impact on the national health service arising from reports that the number of consultants working in the private healthcare system is the highest on record. (S6F-04747)

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

We are complaining that we have been debating this bill for 10 hours, but the fact is that some people in here have been working on it for years. I think that it is absolutely right that we get this matter cleared up, because, having got to this stage, I am quite angry about i...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Made a request to intervene.

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

The bill is not clear on the role of a pharmacist in the process of assisted dying with respect to their scope of practice. That could also risk devaluing the skills of a pharmacist. I asked pharmacists to outline a few of their concerns, and this is what they said:“Imagine be...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Do not make it worse for yourself, First Minister. Interruption.

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Moving on—

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

The Government clearly did not say that, otherwise the Presiding Officer would not have said that the bill was competent at stage 1. Interruption. However—

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I acknowledge the First Minister’s assertion. He knows, I hope, that I have the greatest respect for him. I am merely stating that there is quite a lot of anger, given the amount of work that has been put in, that such information could have been brought to us at stage 2 but w...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

As I said, the bill was passed competent at stage 1, which goes against what the First Minister says about the Government having been open and honest in the way in which the bill has been delivered. I stand by my assertion that the Government has been, at best, unhelpful.

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I welcome Liam McArthur’s intervention, and I stand by what I said.

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Liam McArthur wishes to make an intervention.

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Well, First Minister, let me tell you. I know from a number of MSPs and from my colleagues on the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee how much work members have put into the bill and how much work Mr McArthur has put into it, and it is only recently that that information h...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I will do so in a second. We have been trying to get to a place where the bill is competent, only to find out at the last minute that it might not be competent. The pushback and the lack of engagement from the Scottish Government, which I noted at stage 2, is quite disgraceful.

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I push back gently to say that the bill has been on the statute books for years. We have been discussing the issue for years. Interruption. I apologise—it has not been on the statute books; the bill has been in the offing for a long time. Through the Health, Social Care and Sp...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Amendments 221, 214, 210 and 208 have arisen following concerns from the pharmacy profession. Between stages 2 and 3, I sought feedback on the amendments, which had been narrowly turned down, that were meant to future proof the role of a pharmacist in the NHS as that role evol...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

This is a large group of amendments, and the Deputy Presiding Officer will be pleased to hear that I will not speak to every single one of them.As one would imagine, given that we are discussing assessments of and support for terminally ill adults, most of the contributions fr...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Liam McArthur and I have discussed this at length. My concern is that we are asking two independent medical practitioners, who—we would assume—have a high level of expertise, to come to the same conclusion about the same set of medical conditions. I introduced the amendments b...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

We are in agreement on this issue. As was raised yesterday, the importance of the doctor-patient relationship is unique. My concern is that that relationship is becoming more distant because people do not see the same doctor repeatedly. Doctors must meet patients face to face ...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I will start with amendment 22, which is a tidying amendment.The concern here is that those accessing assisted dying should be provided with all options of support, including social care and palliative care.Amendment 34 would add a reference to a social care assessment to the ...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I absolutely agree with that. There is nothing contentious about offering an advance care directive in such situations. As Daniel Johnson rightly highlighted, we sometimes struggle to talk about what we want going forward, and the advance care directive is a means of discussin...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I say at the outset how disappointed I am to hear the Government’s position on this. Of course, the Government is right: advanced care directives are not legally binding. That is not why they are there—they are there to give clarity not just to the healthcare professional who ...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

11 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Here we go again.The concern that I am trying to address with my amendments in this group is about the protection of patients and their wishes and the protection of healthcare professionals. My amendment 149 seeks to provide clarity on a patient’s decision to family members an...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

10 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I am listening to the debate and, given that those of us on the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee had the benefit of taking evidence from witnesses from around the world, I am concerned that some members are being selective in the evidence that they have gathered. There ...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

10 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Will Michael Matheson give way?

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

10 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Those amendments were not just brought out of a thought. If we do not agree to them, it will be possible to scupper somebody’s accessing of assisted dying simply by suggesting that there might be coercion. The police would then have to carry out an investigation, which would s...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

10 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Does Liam McArthur accept that, over the past few decades, the doctor-patient relationship has changed significantly? That relationship has evolved over time and it is much rarer for a doctor to know a patient these days, so it will be much harder for the doctor to assess coer...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

10 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I know that we are nearly five hours in, but this is my first opportunity to say to my friend and colleague Liam McArthur that I really appreciate the way in which he has taken the bill through Parliament and interacted with all colleagues and MSPs. If we all took legislation ...

Brian Whittle Con Chamber

10 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

On palliative care, the issue is that, if we agree that we want to give people choice, it has to be a proper choice and a real choice, and that must include, if the person so wishes, a basic palliative care package that speaks to their needs. It is possible that they will then...

Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

10 Mar 2026

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

I have listened with great interest to what Daniel Johnson has had to say. I wonder whether he agrees that, whatever timescale we agree to—if we agree to one—it cannot be open ended. If we agree to six months, it will not necessarily mean that someone who tries to access assis...

Brian Whittle Con Committee

10 Mar 2026

Public Health Scotland

I have a quick point about MUP. My worry is that it does not happen in a vacuum, and I am concerned that there might be a correlation between MUP and the hugely disproportionate rise in the use of street benzos in Scottish index of multiple deprivation 1 areas in Scotland. We ...