Chamber and committees

‘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.

The Scottish Government has made no assessment of the number of male chicks culled by maceration in Scotland in the last five years. Most egg producers in Scotland buy in pre-sexed chicks and there are insufficient numbers of producers hatching eggs to make any monitoring/measurement necessary.

Scottish Government are presently scoping the approach to establishing the fund, taking into account existing and recent spending plans from across a number of related policy areas, including tourism.

Scottish Government officials are presently scoping the approach to establishing the fund. Initial meetings with stakeholders have been undertaken and more comprehensive stakeholder engagement is planned. The matter has also been discussed at the National Access Forum.

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 condemns all forms of racially motivated harassment, intimidation and violence and is clear that communities affected should feel safe, supported and resilient.

Since 2021 we have invested £6.3 million to support race equality and anti-racism organisations. This has enabled 48 funded organisations to support over 7,713 individuals and 2,427 organisations. Furthermore, we are investing £2.83M over 3 financial years into the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland to help advance anti-racism, working in conjunction with communities across Scotland.

Working with communities, Police Scotland and local partners is central to the Scottish Government’s approach and we work closely with partners across the third sector and community groups to discuss measures to promote community safety and wellbeing. This engagement is central to ensuring that our approach reflects the needs and lived experiences of those most impacted.

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.

Scottish Government officials are presently scoping the approach to establishing the fund, taking into account existing and recent spending plans from across a number of related policy areas, including tourism.

It will be the defining mission of this government to support families with the cost of living and to eradicate child poverty.

Economic modelling published in March 2026 assesses the cumulative impact of our policies on child poverty. It estimates that action in ‘Bringing Hope, Building Futures’, our Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan for 2026-31, will keep 100,000 children out of relative poverty this year. The impact is proportionately greater for families on the very lowest incomes, with our policies estimated to keep 70,000 children out of deep poverty this year.

Compared to elsewhere in the UK, our Five Family Payments – inclusive of our Scottish Child Payment, three Best Start Grants, and Best Start Foods – are providing unparalleled financial support to families. Our Five Family Payments could be worth over £11,000 by the time an eligible child turns six and around £26,000 by the time an eligible child turns 16. This compares to less than £2,000 for families in England and Wales, where support ends when an eligible child turns four.?

This is part of much wider support for families, including our continued investment in the provision of 1,140 hours of high-quality funded early learning and childcare to all three and four year olds and eligible two year olds. If families paid for this offer themselves, it would cost them around £6,400 per eligible child per year.

Our action is making a real difference to families, with the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimating some of the lowest income households with children are around £2,760 per year better off compared to England as a result of our approach to income tax and benefits.

We know that we must continue to go further to tackle child poverty and support families with the cost of living. That is why we have committed to taking forward plans to ensure essential food items in supermarkets are affordable, to expand support for childcare to all children from nine-months to the end of primary school, and to introducing a £2 nationwide cap on bus fares to lower the cost of people’s commute.