Chamber and committees

Following annual reviews of the number of specialty training places needed to meet anticipated future service demand and consultant need, the Scottish Government has funded the creation of approximately 850 additional posts across multiple specialities since 2014, including in clinical and medical oncology and key surgical specialties. Over the last ten years we have increased the Consultant Oncologists workforce by 46% (from 97.5 WTE as of March 2016 to 142.2 WTE as of March 2026). The number of consultants working in surgical fields relevant to cancer care stood at 1,096.1 WTE as at 31 March 2026. This is an increase of 28%, or 242.3 WTE, over the last decade.

Aggressive cancer is not a term recognised or used in NHS Scotland. This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

A refresh to the Framework for Effective Cancer Management (FECM) and supporting toolkit has now been published and supports NHS Boards to effectively manage suspected cancer patients through diagnostic and treatment pathways.

NHS Boards have been asked to complete self-evaluation of their implementation of the FECM and devise associated action plans where necessary. NHS Board Executive Teams should be fully sighted on these plans and are supporting teams to implement. This will provide oversight of areas of improvement or concerns and enable the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) Cancer Improvement team to support board implementation.

NHS Boards are developing detailed planned care delivery plans for 2026-27 to support waiting list reductions and improve productivity. The Scottish Government and the CfSD are engaging with boards regularly and continue to scrutinise improvement plans and performance trajectories to ensure they are deliverable, whilst considering how available funding may support additional activity.

Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services are a useful addition to how cancer can be diagnosed in Scotland. They provide primary care with access to a new fast-track diagnostic pathway for people with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer, such as weight loss and fatigue.

Scotland’s six Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (RCDSs) – established within existing NHS infrastructure – are operational in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Fife, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Borders and NHS Forth Valley. The development of RCDSs is being led through the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD).

The Scottish Government has commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to undertake an independent scalability assessment of our Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Service Pilots. This project will explore what our options are to expand access to non-specific symptom pathways for cancer in the most efficient and effective way, ensuring we reach population level coverage.

This initial phase of work is due to be complete by Spring 2027 after which we will work with Healthcare Improvement Scotland, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery and NHS Boards to develop an appropriate plan for service expansion.

The University of Strathclyde was invited by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD), following a competitive procurement process, to evaluate Scotland’s RCDSs in November 2021. This aimed to better understand their role in detecting cancer and ensure optimal components are embedded in future models, with an interim report published November 2022.

A final report, published February 2024, following a two year period shows that they’re achieving what they set out to do – find cancer – while delivering a high standard of quality care at speed.

As stated in the response to S7W-01350 on 8 July 2026, The Scottish Government has commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to undertake an independent scalability assessment of our Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Service Pilots. This project will explore what our options are to expand access to non-specific symptom pathways for cancer in the most efficient and effective way, ensuring we reach population level coverage.

This initial phase of work is due to be complete by Spring 2027 after which point the we will work with Healthcare Improvement Scotland, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery and NHS Boards to develop an appropriate plan for service expansion.

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.

‘Aggressive Cancer’ is not a term recognised or used by NHS Scotland.

As stated in the response to S7W-01350 on 8 July 2026, The Scottish Government has commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to undertake an independent scalability assessment of our Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Service Pilots. This project will explore what our options are to expand access to non-specific symptom pathways for cancer in the most efficient and effective way, ensuring we reach population level coverage.

This initial phase of work is due to be complete by Spring 2027 after which point the we will work with Healthcare Improvement Scotland, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery and NHS Boards to develop an appropriate plan for service expansion.

There remains a focus on reform and expansion of non-specific cancer symptom referral, both in Scottish Government policy and across NHS Scotland outside of the RCDS development programme. The updated Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer were published in August 2025. For the first time, these guidelines include urgent suspicion of cancer referral criteria for patients presenting with non-specific symptoms.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery have also developed a RCDS toolkit that is available for all health boards to use to access support in setting up a service at any time.

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.

We have invested over £40m over the past five years to support cancer services and improve waiting times, with a focus on urology, colorectal and breast as our most challenged pathways.

In response to oncology pressures, we have committed to additional funding for chemotherapy services reaching up to £10m per annum by 2027, with £3m released in 2023-24, £4.6m released in 2024-25 and £6.6m in 2025-26.

In addition to this, we have provided 13 mobile MRI and 4 mobile CT scanners to increase activity to 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, to help people get diagnostic tests they need, reducing diagnostic waits.

We have funded additional endoscopy and cystoscopy training places via the NHS Academy to future proof the workforce and provide sustainable diagnostic capacity. There are currently seven one-stop Urology Diagnostic Hubs in NHS Scotland and we will look to establish more.

The Scottish Government accepts that continued diagnostic pressure is affecting 62-day performance. This is seen particularly in the high-volume pathways including colorectal, urological and breast cancer pathways.

Cancer remains a national priority for the NHS and Scottish Government which is why we published our ten-year cancer strategy for Scotland in June 2023, focused on improving cancer survival and providing equitable access to treatment. We have invested over £40m over the past five years to support cancer services and improve waiting times, with a focus on urology, colorectal and breast as our most challenged pathways.

94.5% of patients are being treated within 31 days of a decision to treat, with the median wait for treatment just two days – the joint lowest on record. We are treating more patients with cancer on time, within both standards, compared to pre-pandemic and 10 years ago.

Continued diagnostic pressure and an increase in referrals is affecting the 62-day performance. We recognise that we must do more to ensure more patients are treated within the 62-day standard. NHS Boards treated around 4,200 more cancer patients in the year to March 2026 compared to the same time pre-pandemic (April 2018 to March 2019), on the 62-day pathway.

The following table provides a breakdown of spend and homes delivered through acquisitions by local authority area. The National Acquisition Programme operated in 2023-24. In 2024-25 and 2025-26 the Affordable Housing Supply Programme provided targeted acquisition funding as well as supporting acquisitions through core Resource Planning Assumptions.