Current status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the recent request by NHS National Services Scotland to cease NHS funding of non-therapeutic male circumcision.
There has been no request made by NHS NSS to cease NHS funding of non-therapeutic male circumcision. The reference contained in a recent FOI release to NHS NSS requesting the cessation of NHS funding of NTMC was a factual error within internal Scottish Government correspondence due to two organisations using similar acronyms. The National Secular Society (also referred to as NSS) was the organisation which made this request.
NHS guidelines on how non-therapeutic male circumcision should be performed have been in place since 2008 in Scotland to ensure procedures are carried out safely. Non-therapeutic male circumcision is carried out in one of the four Paediatric Centres by trained paediatric surgeons, under general anaesthesia, as part of a regulated NHS system.