Chamber and committees

Whilst Scottish Ministers are responsible for determining the strategic policy of the NHS in Scotland, NHS Boards are responsible for delivering their services, including making decisions to outsource NHS contracts to the independent sector where appropriate to meet the Board’s needs.

We have expanded the Clinical Oncology and Medical Oncology specialty training programmes since 2014. The Scottish Government is working directly with NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to increase supply into Clinical and Medical Oncology and promote these options as an attractive career choice by future applicants.

Further, we have been expanding Internal Medicine Training (IMT) numbers, for example, which is a pre-requisite for various higher specialties including Clinical and Medical Oncology. This will increase front-end supply into several higher-level specialties including Oncology. The IMT programme has filled at 100% for the past five years.

Official NHS Workforce Statistics are published by NHS Education for Scotland. This data shows the NHS Scotland Consultant Radiologist workforce grew by 2.3% over the last year. Over the last decade the NHS Scotland Consultant Radiologist workforce has grown by 28% and now stands at 388.9 Whole Time Equivalents.

We know many people are still waiting too long and this is not good enough. We are determined do more. This year, more than £106 million has been allocated to health boards to help tackle the longest waits for procedures and operations.

The funding has been assigned to specialty areas where it can have the greatest impact against the longest waits – this includes £21 million for imaging.

Over the next year we will reduce the radiology backlog so that 95% of referrals are seen within six weeks by March 2026, through expanding to seven day services, recruitment, and utilising mobile scanning units. We want to make progress on improving our NHS and our Budget will drive the long-term and lasting improvements – and the healthier population – that we all want to see.

While we work with boards through planning to make best use of existing NHS resources and capacity, Health Boards will continue to use the private sector in a structured and prioritised manner. As new, better and more sustainable ways of delivering services to improve access for patients are developed, we expect the need for private sector capacity to lessen. It is for local NHS health boards to determine how they use the private sector and to agree any contractual arrangements.

Whilst the Scottish Government sets the strategic direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing and the recruitment is the responsibility of health boards as autonomous institutions.

Decisions will depend on the service needs of each board taking account of national, regional and local priorities, and we expect NHS boards to plan and provide safe, effective and high-quality care, in line with their statutory service provision and workforce planning responsibilities.

We know that cancer services are treating more patients on time, within both standards, compared to the same quarter five years ago – 4.5% more within the 31 day standard & 1.6% more within the 62 day standard.

Over £106 million has been allocated to NHS Boards in 2025-26 to help tackle the longest waits for procedures and operations. The funding has been assigned to specialty areas where it can have the greatest impact– this includes £21 million for imaging and over £14 million for cancer waiting times. Scottish Government officials meet with NHS Boards’ Cancer Management Teams on a monthly basis to identify challenges, explore solutions and share best practice.

We have also committed to additional funding for chemotherapy services reaching up to £10m per annum by 2026-27, with £6.6m released in 2025-26. This funding will support increased regional working and workforce recruitment to maximise capacity across the existing workforce.

Scottish Government sets the strategic direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing and the recruitment is the responsibility of health boards as autonomous institutions.

Decisions will depend on the service needs of each board taking account of national, regional and local priorities, and we expect NHS boards to plan and provide safe, effective and high-quality care, in line with their statutory service provision and workforce planning responsibilities.

The NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan, set out the actions Scottish Government have identified to improve NHS Scotland delivery.

This will primarily be driven through reform of NHS Scotland care delivery such as, increasing capacity by optimising national and regional working across Health Board boundaries, reducing waiting lists and targeting investment into the system where it can be most effective. This includes targeted funding for extra recruitment, with assurance provided to Health Boards on recurring funding.

The Scottish Government highly values the support provided to young people by youth workers. Violence towards youth workers is unacceptable and all employees, including youth workers, have the right to be safe at work and to feel safe at work.

Through introduction of the Violence Prevention Framework, the Scottish Government continue to take action by funding activities for young people to prevent and reduce harm from violence.

The Scottish Government encourages anyone who experiences antisocial behaviour or violence at work to report the incident immediately to their employer and Police Scotland. Youth workers should be fully supported by their employers to understand their organisation’s policies regarding antisocial behaviour and the support available if situations escalate.

The Safe Delivery of Care in acute settings maternity inspections were introduced to ensure that all service users in maternity services receive the highest standard of care, as well as to identify opportunities for learning for all NHS Boards. NHS Boards are expected to address the requirements identified by Healthcare Improvement Scotland during inspections as a priority and within the timescales set out in their Improvement Action Plan. We expect that all NHS Boards will consider the findings in these reports and my officials continue to work with maternity service leaders to ensure that the findings are communicated effectively and to identify any national level actions required to improve care.

We remain committed to continuous improvement in maternity services across Scotland. As part of this, we have commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to develop a set of maternity standards designed to drive improvements in care at a local level, expected to publish in Spring 2026. In parallel, our Scottish Patient Safety Perinatal Improvement Programme continues to work with maternity services across Scotland to drive improvements in care for mothers and babies.

As part of our’ Best Start’ Programme we published the new Pathway of Maternity Care in February 2025. This Pathway illustrates compassionate, individualised, person-centred core maternity care that all women and their babies should receive.

The Scottish Government has launched the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors programme to improve CVD outcomes with an aim to ‘reduce avoidable CVD death by 20% in 20 years’. The focus is on improving the identification and management of key risk factors which are; high blood pressure, high cholesterol, raised blood sugars, obesity and smoking.

We have also established a new GP enhanced service from the 2025-26 Reform Fund to support 100,000 patients who are at risk of developing CVD.

Our Population Health Framework, soon to be published in partnership with COSLA, will support the creation of environments that positively supports health and wellbeing. It will focus on prevention and tackling the building blocks of health—including good early years and education, fair work and income, healthy places, equitable healthcare, and the broader social and economic drivers of ill health.

Health and safety legislation applies to all employers across the UK without exception and is a reserved matter under the authority of the UK Parliament.

It is an employer’s duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of their staff and where death or injuries at work occur, there are a range of reserved offences which can be used to hold employers to account, if they are found to be criminally liable.

The Health and Safety Executive states one factor that Scotland’s higher workplace death rate is in part due to more workers in high-risk industries.

The Scottish Government promotes workplace health and safety through its Fair Work policy and supports initiatives like Healthy Working Lives, a Public Health Scotland programme offering resources and training to improve workplace wellbeing.

The Scottish Government’s Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors programme aims to reduce avoidable CVD death by 20% in 20 years. The focus is on improving the identification and management of key risk factors which are; high blood pressure, high cholesterol, raised blood sugars, obesity and smoking.

A key principle of the programme is to extend cardiovascular disease prevention efforts to those we know are at highest risk and particularly underserved by existing models of care.

We have also established a new GP enhanced service from the 2025-26 Reform Fund to support 100,000 patients who are at risk of developing CVD.