Chamber and committees

Our position is unchanged on waiting times – by March 2026 no one will wait more than 12 months for a new outpatient appointment or inpatient/daycase treatment.

We are investing more than £110 million this year to cut waits, and we expect to see the full impact of our targeted funding in the coming months. This targeted funding is expected to deliver more than 213,000 additional procedures and appointments this year.

Our plan is clearly working with a record number of hip and knee operations last year and the highest level of operations performed in July since February 2020.

Vorasidenib (Voranigo®) does not currently have a marketing authorisation (sometimes referred to as a licence) from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) which means it cannot be marketed or sold in the UK. The marketing authorisation process involves the MHRA reviewing and assessing the evidence supporting a medicinal product’s quality, safety and efficacy.

As a result, vorasidenib is being offered for a limited time by the pharmaceutical company, Servier, through a free-of-charge (FOC) pharmaceutical company-led early access programme. Health Boards have processes for considering the use of an unlicensed medicine, including through FOC early access programmes, on an individual case-by-case basis where the clinician feels it would benefit an individual. The Scottish Government does not hold data on these decisions.

Individual Health Boards are responsible for decisions on the implementation and availability of medicines in their area. The Scottish Government has committed to investing rebates from the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG) to fund the New Medicines Fund (NMF), which provides additional top-up funding to territorial Health Boards to support the cost of introducing new medicines. Since 2014/15, £906 million has been made available to Health Boards via the NMF.

I wrote to Ashley Dalton MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention at the Department for Health & Social Care (DHSC) on 8 Aprill 2025 in order to outline the Scottish Government’s position on Clauses 2 and 3 of the Rare Cancers Bill.

Over the last year, my officials have been engaging in active conversation with the UK Government and the other devolved nations on the implementation of the provisions of the Bill.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40323 on 11 September 2025. 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.

All wholetime fire stations have some form of segregated washing facilities for staff and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) estates strategy ensures all premises are risk assessed and that suitable alternative washing facility arrangements and mitigations are implemented. SFRS recognises the need for investment in dignified facilities and for contaminant control measures and prioritises its budget accordingly, for example as part of ongoing work. SFRS has recently upgraded facilities at Galashiels, Newcraighall, McDonald Road, Edinburgh and Inverness.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has 456 rescue pump appliances in operation. 211 of these are more than 15 years old, however all SFRS appliances are properly maintained to ensure they remain fully operational, and the oldest vehicles are placed in locations where they will be least used.

We recognise the challenges facing Scotland’s health and social care system. That is why we have already taken significant steps to set out clear, short and longer term actions to improve access to treatment, shift the balance of care, harness digital innovation, and strengthen prevention.

We recently published the, Foreword - NHS Scotland operational improvement plan - gov.scot the Scotland's Population Health Framework - gov.scot and the Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework - gov.scot in which we outline our shared vision for reforming and renewing health and social care services to ensure they are more sustainable, preventative, and equitable.

We remain committed to engaging with leaders across health and social care, including clinical leaders, to design and deliver the change needed in our NHS.

With regard to charging for services, the Scottish Government’s policy could not be clearer: our National Health Service must be maintained on its founding principles – publicly owned, publicly operated, and free at the point of need. As we have previously said, the provision of health services must always be based on the individual needs of a patient.

The Penrose Inquiry’s report, published on 25 March 2015, contained a single recommendation, which was that the Scottish Government take all reasonable steps to offer a hepatitis C virus (HCV) test to everyone in Scotland who had a blood transfusion before September 1991 and who has not been tested for HCV. The Scottish Government accepted this recommendation and in response a Short-Life Working Group (SLWG), involving key stakeholders such as the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, was established by Health Protection Scotland. The SLWG progress report was published on 2 September 2016, setting out the range of work undertaken by the SLWG.

The Scottish Government accepted the recommendation of the SLWG that there should be an awareness raising campaign to encourage people who had (or are likely to have had) a blood transfusion prior to 1991, and who have not already been tested for hepatitis C, to come forward for testing. A targeted awareness raising campaign to encourage such individuals to be tested was launched in October 2016 and an evaluation of the campaign, as recommended by the SLWG, was completed by Health Protection Scotland in 2018. The SLWG also recommended that a Chief Medical Officer letter should be sent to all clinicians in Scotland to remind them of certain risk factors and clinical indicators for HCV infection and making them aware of the recent advances in therapy and thus the benefits of HCV testing. The Chief Medical Officer accordingly wrote to all clinicians in Scotland on 20 September 2016, following up a previous letter issued just after the publication of the Penrose report on 27 March 2015. The Penrose Inquiry’s recommendation has therefore been fully implemented.

Scottish Government committed to a Four Day Working Week pilot in the public sector to explore the wellbeing and productivity benefits that a shorter working week could bring. No additional funding was allocated to either Accountancy in Bankruptcy or South of Scotland Enterprise to deliver the pilot in their organisations.

The pilot was delivered in partnership with The Autonomy Institute who published their evaluation report on 27 August. The report can be accessed here - Four day working week pilot - Public sector pay - gov.scot.

How the recommendations are taken forward will be determined following consultation with stakeholders, including NHS Boards and OSCR. Consultation will ensure no unintended consequences as well as appropriate consideration of capacity, as significant work will be involved for both for the Scottish Government and for Health Boards. The timing of that consultation has yet to be determined.

In the meantime, funds remain available to be directed in accordance with the charities’ purpose, and taking account any restricted funds.

It is also important to note that neither OSCR's inquiry nor the Independent Review indicated that there are widespread issues in the decisions being made about the use of NHS Endowments’ charitable funds.