Current status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 June 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the Scottish National Party 2026 manifesto commitment to invest in Scotland’s NHS estate and in state-of-the-art equipment, including MRI scanners, CT scanners and imaging equipment, how much it plans to spend over the course of the current parliamentary session and how many new scanners and imaging equipment will be rolled out.
The Scottish Spending Review 2026 sets out the Scottish Government's indicative capital spending plans for the four years to 2029-30. This includes £4.1 billion health capital investment across major infrastructure projects, essential maintenance and replacing and upgrading vital medical equipment as part of the commitment to invest £10 billion over the next decade.
We are currently working with all health boards to develop an NHS whole system infrastructure plan (WSIP) for Scotland to support targeted investment based on need across all of the NHS estate. This supports continued safe and effective use of existing facilities, through ongoing business continuity planning, as well as informing future investment priorities based on assessment of need across the whole of Scotland.
The first phase, Business Continuity Planning, is focussed on priority investment in the existing estate and equipment to support service continuity. Boards have completed risk-based assessments and received confirmation of items which can be progressed with additional funding from the Scottish Government. Future Business Continuity Plan submissions will be on a two-yearly full submission cycle, with interim years only requiring ‘by-exception’ reporting of new essential maintenance or equipment replacement items not previously reported.
In addition to the above planning, Health Boards receive baseline Capital funding each year to be used at their discretion to address estate and equipment requirements. The Scottish Government also continues to fund the national rolling radiotherapy equipment and ambulance fleet replacement programmes.