Chamber and committees

The expansion of the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub to provide a national pathway to brief psychological interventions for those would benefit from early treatment but would not meet the criteria to access local specialist secondary care mental health services launched in December 2025. This is providing treatment from professionals appropriately trained in psychological practice. The expansion also allows people calling the Hub access to existing digital psychological therapies. This is helping to improve early identification of the need for support and timely access to early intervention support to prevent mental health issues escalating, support for life events, and to help people cope with physical health conditions.

Since the initial launch and in line with this government’s manifesto commitment, improvement work will continue to ensure the service can increase the number of people who can benefit from treatment.

The Scottish Government commitment to carrying out a clinically led review of latest data and evidence to determine whether there is merit in specific additional or alternative cancer waiting times standards for different types of cancer and cancer treatment is already underway.

A project steering group is being established which will support the review, determining if any amendments to the standards would enhance patient experience and meet the needs of the NHS for the future.

Evidence review commissions were shared with key partners in April, with the full clinical consensus review expected to conclude with recommendations within 18- 24 months.

Scottish Ministers will be considering options with the Scottish Ambulance Service to increase the availability of this service across Scotland, this will be informed by an evaluation of the current three sites funded by the Scottish Government in Glasgow, Inverness and Dundee. We expect the evaluation to be available by the end of summer 2026.

NHS Highland has made sustained progress against the 15 recommendations set out in Sir Lewis Ritchie’s report. Most of the recommendations have now been fully implemented, with the remainder either partially implemented or progressed.

The nature of a small number of these recommendations, particularly those relating to workforce, housing, system resilience and partnership working, means that these are not finite end-points but areas requiring sustained focus and continuous improvement.

NHS Highland continues to work closely with local communities and stakeholders to build confidence and trust and to ensure that services evolve in line with local need and experience.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00537. on 8 June 2026. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found athttps://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Six GP walk-in centres are currently operational, with the first delivered in February. Three of those are already operating seven days a week, with the remainder open on a phased basis, but all will move to full hours in due course. The intention of a phased basis opening was to deliver new services as quickly as possible for patients.

As outlined in our manifesto, and as part of wider plans to support a just transition to net zero by 2045, the Scottish Government is committed to commissioning a feasibility study into the potential use of tram-trains on the South Suburban line in Edinburgh within the first 100 days of Government.

We are delivering at pace for Scotland, and will launch a public consultation on the retail display of vapes and nicotine products within our first 100 days in Government. This is part of our on-going implementation of the 2026 Tobacco and Vapes Act, and we will continue to work across the four nations where appropriate.

Decisions on further legislative restrictions on displays will be dependent on the outcome of this consultation.

Through targeted investment and service renewal, we will ensure no patient waits longer than 26 weeks for treatment by the end of this parliamentary term.

This follows a substantive and sustained period of improvement over the last year which saw waits over 52 weeks for New Outpatient decrease for 11 consecutive months and for Inpatient / Day-case by 15 months. We’re also seeing real progress in diagnostics, with activity in the latest quarter at its highest since reporting began in April 2024.

This progress was backed by more than £150 million additional funding in 2025-26, allocated to health boards to target the longest waits for planned care, and deliver on our Operational Improvement Plan commitment to provide an additional 150,000 appointments and procedures. The latest data show this target was surpassed with more than 168,000 additional appointments and procedures delivered.

We have already invested an additional £100 million this year to build on the progress made in the 2025-26 Operational Improvement Plan. We will build on this by creating additional capacity and deliver further reductions in waiting times, with a particular focus on those waiting the longest.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00454 on 8 June 2026. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.