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Whilst the Scottish Government sets the strategic direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing and the recruitment is the responsibility of health boards as autonomous institutions.

Decisions will depend on the service needs of each board taking account of national, regional and local priorities, and we expect NHS boards to plan and provide safe, effective and high-quality care, in line with their statutory service provision and workforce planning responsibilities.

We know that cancer services are treating more patients on time, within both standards, compared to the same quarter five years ago – 4.5% more within the 31 day standard & 1.6% more within the 62 day standard.

Over £106 million has been allocated to NHS Boards in 2025-26 to help tackle the longest waits for procedures and operations. The funding has been assigned to specialty areas where it can have the greatest impact– this includes £21 million for imaging and over £14 million for cancer waiting times. Scottish Government officials meet with NHS Boards’ Cancer Management Teams on a monthly basis to identify challenges, explore solutions and share best practice.

We have also committed to additional funding for chemotherapy services reaching up to £10m per annum by 2026-27, with £6.6m released in 2025-26. This funding will support increased regional working and workforce recruitment to maximise capacity across the existing workforce.

Scottish Government sets the strategic direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing and the recruitment is the responsibility of health boards as autonomous institutions.

Decisions will depend on the service needs of each board taking account of national, regional and local priorities, and we expect NHS boards to plan and provide safe, effective and high-quality care, in line with their statutory service provision and workforce planning responsibilities.

The NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan, set out the actions Scottish Government have identified to improve NHS Scotland delivery.

This will primarily be driven through reform of NHS Scotland care delivery such as, increasing capacity by optimising national and regional working across Health Board boundaries, reducing waiting lists and targeting investment into the system where it can be most effective. This includes targeted funding for extra recruitment, with assurance provided to Health Boards on recurring funding.

Official NHS Workforce Statistics are published by NHS Education for Scotland. This data shows the NHS Scotland Consultant Radiologist workforce grew by 2.3% over the last year. Over the last decade the NHS Scotland Consultant Radiologist workforce has grown by 28% and now stands at 388.9 Whole Time Equivalents.

We know many people are still waiting too long and this is not good enough. We are determined do more. This year, more than £106 million has been allocated to health boards to help tackle the longest waits for procedures and operations.

The funding has been assigned to specialty areas where it can have the greatest impact against the longest waits – this includes £21 million for imaging.

Over the next year we will reduce the radiology backlog so that 95% of referrals are seen within six weeks by March 2026, through expanding to seven day services, recruitment, and utilising mobile scanning units. We want to make progress on improving our NHS and our Budget will drive the long-term and lasting improvements – and the healthier population – that we all want to see.

While we work with boards through planning to make best use of existing NHS resources and capacity, Health Boards will continue to use the private sector in a structured and prioritised manner. As new, better and more sustainable ways of delivering services to improve access for patients are developed, we expect the need for private sector capacity to lessen. It is for local NHS health boards to determine how they use the private sector and to agree any contractual arrangements.

The Scottish Government does not support the manufacture of munitions - nor do our public agencies. The support provided is focused on helping firms to diversify and develop civilian applications for their technology and ensure Scotland continues to benefit from the thousands of jobs in the defence, aerospace and shipbuilding sectors.

Our Guidance on Due Diligence: Human Rights sets out recommendations on how the Scottish Government, our executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies should undertake appropriate due diligence on companies, including their human rights record, before entering into an investment relationship with them. In operationalising our guidance, Scottish Enterprise’s Customer Due Diligence Procedure sets out the process that it follows to undertake human rights due diligence checks on companies it works with.

In line with the Scottish Public Finance Manual, general grants are discretionary and intended only for the delivery of policy aims/objectives and/or national outcomes.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) holds operational responsibility for the delivery of apprenticeships across Scotland, including the assessment of sectoral demand. Within the roofing sector, there are currently three distinct apprenticeship pathways, all of which are embedded within the Construction Modern Apprenticeship (MA) frameworks.

The Scottish Government continues to prioritise funding for Modern Apprenticeships in construction, recognising the sector as one of the largest contributors to MA starts and in-training figures for 2024-25.

Modern Apprenticeship allocations are informed by consultation with employers and industry stakeholders. This includes demand statements from Sector Skills Organisations and representative bodies, input from Industry Leadership Groups, and insights drawn from Skills Investment Plans and Regional Skills Assessments.

In 2025-26, we are investing £300 million in heat in buildings programmes to increase energy efficiency and provide financial support. At the same time, we are prioritising skills development for Scotland’s current and future workforce—working closely with the sector to ensure training provision aligns locally with business needs and future demands, supporting our transition to net zero.

Through our Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray, we have allocated £75 million since 2022 to create jobs, support innovation and secure the highly skilled workforce of the future.

We are not aware of high rates of maternal mortality in remote and rural areas of Scotland, and unfortunately the ICESCR report does not provide any evidence in support of this statement in its report in relation to Scotland or the UK.

All women and girls who are pregnant in any part of Scotland will have the full range of maternity care provided to them. Our Health Boards continue to look to improve the range of maternity and neonatal care that can be provided locally to meet the needs of their rural populations. When specialist maternity or neonatal care is required which cannot safely be delivered locally, women and babies may need to travel to access that care, and we expect Boards to facilitate seamless delivery of this care.

We are also committed to ensuring that women across Scotland have timely access to sexual and reproductive health services, and to information which allows them to make informed decisions about their own sexual and reproductive health. Our Sexual Health and Blood Borne Viruses Action Plan 2023-26 sets out our ambitions to improving the accessibility and availability of contraception services across Scotland. As part of this plan, we have committed to visiting all 14 health boards. During these visits we will be recognising the challenges that boards are facing and the good practice they are delivering. We will also use this time to explore areas for collaboration between boards both nationally and regionally, especially within rural areas.

Health and safety legislation applies to all employers across the UK without exception and is a reserved matter under the authority of the UK Parliament.

It is an employer’s duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of their staff and where death or injuries at work occur, there are a range of reserved offences which can be used to hold employers to account, if they are found to be criminally liable.

The Health and Safety Executive states one factor that Scotland’s higher workplace death rate is in part due to more workers in high-risk industries.

The Scottish Government promotes workplace health and safety through its Fair Work policy and supports initiatives like Healthy Working Lives, a Public Health Scotland programme offering resources and training to improve workplace wellbeing.

Clinical radiology specialty training programmes have been filled at 100% in Scotland from 2014 to 2024, with 230 resident doctors successfully completing the training in this period.

The Scottish Government continues to invest heavily in radiology training. We are currently funding around 190 specialty training places in clinical radiology, including 78 extra places which have been added since 2014, based on modelling and future workforce need.

The Scottish Government’s Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors programme aims to reduce avoidable CVD death by 20% in 20 years. The focus is on improving the identification and management of key risk factors which are; high blood pressure, high cholesterol, raised blood sugars, obesity and smoking.

A key principle of the programme is to extend cardiovascular disease prevention efforts to those we know are at highest risk and particularly underserved by existing models of care.

We have also established a new GP enhanced service from the 2025-26 Reform Fund to support 100,000 patients who are at risk of developing CVD.