Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00640 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

Within the Scottish Government policy responsibility for Health and Care Research sits with the Chief Scientist Office (CSO)

NHS Research Scotland (NRS) is a partnership between the NHS Boards and CSO. NRS works to ensure that the NHS in Scotland provides the best environment to support clinical trials. The Scottish Government provides annual NRS Infrastructure support funding. The 2025/26 figure for this funding was £46.16 million.

The VPAG Commercial Clinical Trials Investment Programme was agreed as part of the 2024 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG). It aims to strengthen the UK’s global competitiveness in life sciences and support innovation led growth. The programme is supported by approximately £400 million of funding from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry members

The clinical trials component of VPAG is intended to enhance capacity and delivery of commercial clinical research across the UK. Approximately £40 million from this element of the VPAG investment programme is expected to be invested in Scotland over the five year scheme. CSO has worked with NRS to configure this investment to maximise the opportunities for patients to participate in commercial clinical trials. This includes the setting up of 4 Commercial Research Delivery Centres (CRDC's) - based in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow - to accelerate and strengthen commercial clinical research delivery.

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Health Research Register (SHARE). This allows people, aged 11 and over, to register their interest in being contacted about relevant Clinical Trials based on the coded data in their various NHS computer records. As of 10th June 2026, SHARE had recruited 312,835 participants SHARE | RegisterforSHARE

The Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 provides us with powers to expand existing smoke free spaces, as well as create vape free spaces and heated tobacco free spaces.

These powers support the implementation of our Tobacco and Vaping Framework Place based actions, and we are considering how we will use the powers, ensuring action is both evidence based and proportionate.

Any action will be subject to consultation and I will update Parliament with the next steps in due course.

Scotland’s screening policy, as is the case in the other nations of the UK, is guided by the recommendations of the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC). Before making any recommendations, the UK NSC considers the best available evidence to establish whether the harms of screening outweigh the benefits.

On 28 May, the UK NSC recommended that prostate screening should be offered to men aged 45 to 61 with both a confirmed BRCA2 gene variant and a family history of breast, ovarian, pancreatic or prostate cancer.

The Minister for Mental Wellbeing, Public Health, Sport, Alcohol and Drugs, Maree Todd, welcomes and accepts this recommendation. As an immediate priority we are working to consider how the current system for cancer surveillance across our Health Boards can be strengthened to bring us in line with the UK NSC Recommendation. In parallel, work will explore what might be needed to formalise the existing system as a national screening programme.

The UK NSC will continue to gather evidence on the impact of screening on other groups, particularly through the TRANSFORM trial. The Scottish Government will support this evidence gathering in any way it can.

Whilst the March 2026 target was not met, sustained progress continues to be made and waiting lists continue to fall in Scotland, with new outpatient waits over a year decreasing for 11 consecutive months and inpatient and daycase waits reducing for 15 months in a row.

We are determined to continue to build on this substantial progress and the focus remains on maintaining this trajectory and building on progress to eliminate the longest waits as quickly as possible to ensure people receive the treatment they need.

The Scottish Government has commissioned the sub national structures to develop a clear and deliverable plan to eradicate all long weeks over 52 weeks as soon as possible, including the prioritisation of those who have been waiting over 78 and 104 weeks.

To ensure capital funding is targeted effectively, we are working with all health boards to develop a whole-system NHS infrastructure plan for Scotland, which will inform future investment priorities.

As part of this, we are taking forward a primary care infrastructure investment strategy, as set out in the Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline published on 13 January 2026. An initial tranche of 12 priority areas has been identified, based on health needs, population demographics and the condition of the existing estate, with work on three projects commencing immediately. This programme includes the development of a sustainable revenue funding model to support further investment in primary and community care infrastructure, including a network of local care and wellbeing centres across Scotland. To accelerate delivery, business case development and the revenue model will be progressed in parallel.

On current assumptions, construction is expected to begin from around 2031.

The Scottish Government’s Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline sets out the infrastructure projects and programmes the Scottish Government will fund over the next four financial years.

The Scottish Government is working with all Health Boards to develop a whole system infrastructure plan to identify investment priorities across NHS Scotland. Projects that had previously begun the business case process but were then paused, such as the remaining National Treatment Centres, will be considered as part of this work.

We have already invested an additional £100 million in 2026-27 to support delivery of commitments set out in the 25–26 Operational Improvement Plan, including action to reduce waiting times.

This funding is being allocated to Health Boards to support increased activity, including delivery of the commitment to undertake at least 50,000 operations and procedures within the first 100 days. Boards have flexibility to target this funding towards the specialties and services where waiting times are most challenged.

Information on the breakdown of these additional operations and procedures by specialty and location is not held centrally, as decisions on service delivery are made locally by Health Boards to reflect differing pressures and capacity across Scotland.

There is currently no fully established national clinical pathway for Ehlers–Danlos syndromes (EDS) or hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD) specifically commissioned by NHS Scotland.

Clinical pathways, including any dedicated pathways for EDS or HSD, can be developed by individual NHS boards under established clinical governance arrangements, informed by clinical evidence, service needs and local population need.

Where proposals are put forward for pathway development, these are considered through established, clinically led processes by NHS and relevant national delivery partners.