Part of First Minister’s Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 2 October 2025.
Roz McCall
Conservative
The 2025 Scottish stroke improvement report shows that, in my region of Mid Scotland and Fife, only 67 per cent of stroke patients in NHS Fife, 53 per cent in NHS Tayside and 40 per cent in NHS Forth Valley received a full stroke care bundle on admission. That is a serious failure given that the required standard is 80 per cent. Across Scotland, not a single health board met the standard, with just 53 per cent of patients across the country receiving the bundle.
The Scottish Government now wants to introduce a revised 100 per cent standard, which I welcome. However, given that we are not close to meeting the standard now, how will the Government ensure that health board management teams and, more importantly, the named person for stroke are accountable for meeting the standard? What immediate action will be taken to support our hard-working stroke clinical teams so that they can give patients the effective care that they urgently need and deserve?
Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask Government Ministers questions. These questions are asked in the Chamber itself and are known as Oral Questions. Members may also put down Written Questions. In the House of Commons, Question Time takes place for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after Prayers. The different Government Departments answer questions according to a rota and the questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the Government Department concerned. In the House of Lords up to four questions may be asked of the Government at the beginning of each day's business. They are known as 'starred questions' because they are marked with a star on the Order Paper. Questions may also be asked at the end of each day's business and these may include a short debate. They are known as 'unstarred questions' and are less frequent. Questions in both Houses must be written down in advance and put on the agenda and both Houses have methods for selecting the questions that will be asked. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P1 at the UK Parliament site.
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