Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-40965

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the Treatment Time Guarantee can be meaningfully enforced in cases where NHS boards are unable to measure full patient pathways, and what assessment it has made of compliance under such circumstances.

I refer the member to the answers for questions S6W-40963 and S6W-40964 on 17 October 2025.

The Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 legislates that an eligible patient is to start to receive agreed inpatient or day case treatment within a 12-week Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG). This guarantee is based on completed waits where a patient is removed from the list after being admitted for treatment and does not include periods of waiting pre-decision to treat. Health Boards must take all reasonable steps to ensure they comply with this standard.

To support the above guarantee, 95% of new outpatients should wait no longer than 12 weeks from referral to being seen at a consultant-led clinic. This includes all referral sources.

We have seen progress in inpatient and day-case admissions, with 57% taking place within 12 weeks, up from the previous quarter, while a third of those still waiting had done so for less than 12 weeks. We expect NHS Boards to focus on these individual targets for each part of the patient journey, and we have routinely performance managed Boards on this basis since the implementation of the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011.

In addition, the Scottish Government’s NHS Scotland Waiting Times Guidance was updated in November 2023 to provide guidance for Health Boards to assist them in the delivery of the national waiting times standards. This guidance replaces the previous 2012 publication and continues to ensure that patients who are waiting for an appointment, diagnostic test or treatment are managed fairly and consistently across NHS Scotland. The changes made align to our commitment to deliver sustained improvements and reductions to waiting times through service redesign, as well as enhanced regional and national working across NHS Scotland.

Finally, our Budget is providing more than £110 million to Health Boards this year to support reductions to the longest waits for appointments and procedures.

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.

Question reference: S6W-40953

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 17 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an an update on its public consultation on the role of Permitted Development Rights in delivering more high-quality homes.

The Scottish Government launched a public consultation on Permitted development rights to support the provision of new homes on 3 September 2025. The consultation closes on 27 October 2025. The consultation sets out a range of options to simplify planning processes and encourage the provision of new homes in rural areas and town and city centres.

The consultation responses will inform the formation and refinement of any proposals for new or amended permitted development rights. A statutory instrument containing any changes stemming from the consultation would likely be laid in the Scottish Parliament in early 2026.

A summary of the consultation responses will be published in due course. Individual responses will be published where consent has been given.

Question reference: S6W-40964

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 17 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that all NHS boards can accurately measure total patient waiting times for treatment and what the timeline is for implementing systems that allow full patient data linkage.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40963 on 17 October 2025.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any NHS Scotland Health Board that cannot accurately measure total patient waiting times for treatment.

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.

Question reference: S6W-40985

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 16 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review the role of NatureScot as both conservation regulator and custodian of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, in light of reported concerns by some event organisers regarding potential conflicts of interest.

NatureScot has a statutory role to promote and publicise the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC) and to keep it under review. This does not conflict with NatureScot’s role in protecting and conserving nature. The SOAC is very clear that disturbance of wildlife or protected areas does not fall within the standards of responsible behaviour expected and would not, therefore fall within the definition of ‘responsible access’ rights. It should go without saying that our laws relating to nature conservation should be complied with.

NatureScot and the National Access Forum have recently updated guidance on managing wildlife disturbance and outdoor access, which provides more detail on this matter.

Question reference: S6W-40987

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 16 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review the current Scottish Outdoor Access Code guidance for outdoor event organisers, and if so, how it will ensure that any such updated guidance reflects the practical realities of responsible outdoor access, while protecting Scotland’s natural environment.

NatureScot have a statutory duty to promote, publicise and keep the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC) under review. In discharging this duty NatureScot work with access authorities and the National Access Forum. Currently the Outdoor events in Scotland and Commercial access to the outdoors guidance is being reviewed and updated by NatureScot and the National Access Forum. This work is being led by a group which has been established with representatives of access managers, land managers and event organisers.

Question reference: S6W-40986

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 16 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that the Scottish Outdoor Access Code and the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 are applied consistently and fairly to small-scale, low-impact outdoor adventure and sporting events.

The management of access rights is a matter for access authorities, who have a statutory duty and powers to ensure access rights are upheld. This is done within the framework of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC) which provides specific guidance for event organisers, land managers and the public in respect to responsible access. Clearly all events of the kind mentioned vary in scale, sensitivity and location and there may, therefore, be the appearance of this guidance being applied differently. Examples of Guidance associated with outdoors events include Outdoor events in Scotland and Commercial access to the outdoors.

Question reference: S6W-40967

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 14 October 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Public Health Scotland has paused the 18 weeks referral-to-treatment standard reporting, and what steps are being taken to address any underlying data quality issues.

The 18 weeks Referral to Treatment (RTT) standard is one of a number of targets set by the Scottish Government for access to hospital services.

The decision by Public Health Scotland (PHS) to pause RTT collection and reporting is consistent with the Scottish Government’s Chief Statistician letter to the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in October 2024 which set out the importance of statisticians having the authority to take decisions to improve their statistics to service a wide range of users.

It is for each individual analytical area in Scottish Government and the agencies, including PHS, to determine the approach they want to take to deliver on the priorities. Critical to that delivery is the ability for statisticians to properly resource the work to develop their priorities and this means that some publications may need to be scaled back or paused to make space for transformative work and deliver on the Statistical Strategic Priorities for Scotland.

PHS’s decision reflects the need to release capacity to focus on new priorities, such as expanding the diagnostic activity statistics for the eight key diagnostic tests. Developing these statistics will contribute to the measurement of progress towards the Scottish Government’s Operational Improvement Plan commitments in the financial year 2025-26.

Furthermore, PHS publishes a wide range of statistics about waiting times for different services and in recent years the focus of NHS boards and Scottish Government has been directed to individual targets for each part of the patient journey such as 12-week Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) and New Outpatient Standard.

In line with the principles in the Code of Practice for Statistics, PHS informed users of the pause on 18 March 2025 and invited feedback from users to assess the impact of this decision. This information will help inform future plans or PHS’s waiting times statistics.

Question reference: S6O-04988

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with community groups that have raised concerns regarding the proliferation of energy infrastructure, including pylons, battery energy storage systems and wind farms.

Question reference: S6O-04959

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its ongoing review of the guidance on the mothballing of nurseries.

Question reference: S6W-39101

Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 July 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund has been allocated to the Scottish Borders.

Since 2011, the Scottish Government has provided over £65 million to support the development of public EV charging across Scotland. As a direct result of this funding, and increasing private sector investment, Scotland now has over 6,900 public charge points, a target for 6,000 public charge points was met in October 2024, two years ahead of schedule. Scotland has one of the most comprehensive public charging networks in the UK, with, on a per head of population basis, more rapid public EV charge points than any other part of the UK except the South East of England.

Through our £30 million EV Infrastructure Fund, we continue to support local authorities to work in partnership with the private sector to expand public EV charging across Scotland. With public funding prioritising those areas of Scotland less likely to benefit from stand-alone private sector investment in public EV charging infrastructure, including our rural and island communities.

To date Scottish Borders Council has received £137,000 in funding from the EV Infrastructure Fund to support the development of an EV Infrastructure Strategy and Expansion Plan covering the Scottish Borders. Scottish Borders Council has also bid for project funding from the EV Infrastructure Fund as part of a partnership which also includes City of Edinburgh, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries & Galloway, Falkirk, Fife, Midlothian and West Lothian Councils. The project funding awarded to this partnership through the EV Infrastructure Fund to expand public EV charging across the South of Scotland is due to be announced later this year.

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