Chamber and committees

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.

Continued diagnostic pressure is affecting 62-day performance. This is seen particularly in the high-volume pathways including colorectal, urological and breast cancer pathways.

We have invested £40m over five years to support cancer services and improve waiting times, with a focus on urology, colorectal and breast.

Officials and the Centre for Sustainable Delivery are engaging with boards, including NHS Highland, regularly and continue to scrutinise improvement plans and performance trajectories to ensure they are deliverable, whilst considering how available funding may support additional activity.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving timely access to needs-based support for children and young people, in line with GIRFEC and the National Neurodevelopmental Specification. Access to support should not be dependent on a diagnosis, except in limited circumstances such as the prescribing of ADHD medication.

We are continuing our work with COSLA and the Children and Young People’s Neurodevelopment Taskforce to deliver on the actions set out in the Review of the Specification for Children and Young People.

In 2025-26 we provided over £2.9 million of funding to support projects to improve access to neurodevelopmental support across Scotland. The 2026/27 Budget includes additional investment of £7.6 million.

It is important to recognise that CAMHS is a specialist service for those experiencing significant mental health issues. Neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism and ADHD, are not mental health conditions. CAMHS is therefore not the correct service for neurodevelopmental diagnostic assessment, unless there is a co-occurring mental health condition that meets CAMHS criteria.

The estimated number of individuals prescribed methadone nationally in each financial year since 2020/21 is presented in the following table:

The General Medical Council (GMC), the independent UK statutory regulator for the medical profession, publishes its guidance Good Medical Practice (GMP), which sets the standards for professional practice and how doctors should work with patients.

While the title “consultant” is not a protected title under the Medical Act 1983, GMP is clear that doctors must always be honest and transparent about their experience, qualifications and current role.

Therefore, the Scottish Government has no plans at present to issue separate national guidance on the use of professional titles. NHS Boards are expected to ensure that employment and governance arrangements are consistent with relevant professional and regulatory requirements.

The Scottish Government recognises the workforce and skills implications of delivering across these sectors and is working to ensure the skills system can respond.

The consented onshore wind pipeline presents a significant opportunity for Scotland’s economy, as does the transmission infrastructure needed to unlock the full benefit of the clean, affordable and secure power that Scotland can generate from its own resources.

Delivery of the pipeline and investment by Scotland’s Transmission Owners will support thousands of skilled jobs in construction, engineering and the wider supply chain. The Scottish Government is supporting this through the skills system and working with industry, developers and our skills agencies to ensure that communities across Scotland benefit from these opportunities.

In respect of data centres, we continue to take steps to understand the impact on Scotland’s construction supply chain. This includes working with wider public sector to understand what research may be required to fully account for the current projects in the planning system.

The Scottish Government has also introduced a Scottish Government-led skills planning model, being developed in partnership with stakeholders, to ensure the post school education and skills system becomes more responsive to Scotland’s strategic skills priorities.

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 above infrastructure includes the NRS Cancer Research Network that supports the set up and delivery of cancer clinical trials including in brain tumours (Cancer | NHS Research Scotland | NHS Research Scotland) – annual Scottish Government funding to the NRS Cancer Network is in the region of £1 million per annum. The NRS Cancer Network is currently supporting 10 brain tumour studies open to recruitment in the NHS in Scotland – these studies have recruited a total of over 120 patients to date.

CSO co-funds in partnership with Cancer Research UK, the Adult Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMC's) in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and a Paediatric ECMC in Glasgow. These form part of a UK-wide ECMC Network that works to support the delivery of early phase cancer studies including in Brain Tumours (Edinburgh adult centre | Experimental cancer medicine centres) and (Glasgow adult centre | Experimental cancer medicine centres) – CSO’s annual contribution is approximately £470K.

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. It is anticipated that Cancer trials (including Brain Tumour trials) will represent around 50% of the commercial trial portfolio.

While driving tests are a fully reserved matter for the UK Government, extended waiting times have had a significant impact on learner drivers across Scotland.

In December 2024, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) introduced a seven-point plan aimed at reducing driving test waiting times and improving learners' experience of the booking process. A public consultation on further improvements to the driving test booking system subsequently ran between 28 May and 23 July 2025.

Following that consultation, the UK Government announced additional measures which were introduced from spring 2026. These changes include reducing the number of times a driving test can be changed from six to two; requiring learners to book and manage their own tests; prohibiting the use of unofficial booking services; and, limiting driving test changes to the three nearest test centres. These measures can be found at: Changes to driving test booking rules in 2026 - GOV.UK

As this is a reserved matter, the Scottish Government had no role in developing these measures, or in the work of DVSA. However we have had considerable correspondence from members of the public on these issues and Transport Scotland officials have met with DVSA to discuss these changes and their implications for Scotland and will continue to engage with the DVSA on these issues and to raise the concerns of learners.

The Scottish Government launched the Scottish Emergency Heating Oil Scheme within weeks in response to the spiralling prices caused by the Iran conflict and wider instability, such as Russia's war in Ukraine, undermining energy security across Europe as well as other factors such as the increases to the cost of living due to the UK leaving the EU.

The scheme was put in place to ensure the most vulnerable households are supported during the cost of living crisis, which includes households on means-tested benefits but also those in financial hardship and at risk of self-rationing fuel who have unavoidable additional heating needs, with the first payment made within 24 hours of the scheme launching on 1 April 2026.

As at the end of 9 August 2026, £1,747,800 has been paid out to ensure the most vulnerable households are supported during the cost of living crisis, which includes households on means-tested benefits but also those in financial hardship and at risk of self-rationing fuel who have unavoidable heating needs.

The following table provides the outcome of applications that Advice Direct Scotland have received to the Scottish Emergency Heating Oil Scheme, as at the end of 9 August 2026.

These management figures are taken from a live administrative database and so could be subject to future revision. There are various caveats with the data and should not be regarded as official statistics, these caveats are noted in the following table.

The Scottish Government undertook a lessons learned exercise following winter 2025-26 involving NHS Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships, national organisations and Scottish Government officials. The review found that planning and partnership working had improved, but that services continued to face significant pressures associated with high hospital occupancy, delayed discharge, workforce challenges and sustained demand across health and social care.

The review also found that many of the pressures experienced during winter reflect wider year-round challenges rather than a short-term seasonal event. Key lessons identified included the importance of whole-system working, improving patient flow, supporting workforce resilience, strengthening preventative approaches and providing earlier and clearer national direction.

These findings are informing current planning for 2026-27, including a refresh of the National Planning Priorities and Principles for Surge and Winter Preparedness, strengthened governance and assurance arrangements, enhanced regional coordination and improved operational intelligence. They are also informing development of the National Flow Plan, which is intended to improve patient flow, reduce delayed discharge, improve use of available capacity and strengthen whole-system coordination across urgent and unscheduled care services.

The Scottish Government was pleased to note the publication of Breast Cancer Now’s Scotland Demands Change Report. It was positive to note that the charities two ambitions ‘quicker, earlier diagnosis to save and improve lives’ and ‘everyone getting the best care and support’ align closely with the ambitions laid out in the Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033.

Our work on earlier diagnosis includes our Detect Cancer Earlier Programme which takes a whole-systems approach to early detection and encompasses primary care, diagnostics, public education, data, innovation and screening.

Our work on ‘care and support’ includes our partnership Macmillan to improve the service we offer patients with cancer through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme (TCC) and our flagship Single Point of Contact programme which gives people with cancer a consistent contact throughout their treatment, enabling specialist staff to focus on complex clinical care.