First Minister’s Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 4 December 2025.
Douglas Ross
Conservative
Last Friday, the United Kingdom National Screening Committee decided not to recommend a national screening programme for prostate cancer. The very next day, listeners to “Off the Ball” heard Kenny Macintyre speak very candidly about his own diagnosis with prostate cancer. Kenny was getting regular tests because of a family history of the disease, and he said:
“I’m very lucky to have caught this early, and I believe that is only because I pushed for regular testing. I had absolutely no symptoms and all examination indicated things were normal. Had it not been for regular checks, which revealed a rising trend in my PSA levels, things may have been very different.”
We are lucky that we have men such as Kenny Macintyre, Sir Chris Hoy and others who are speaking about their experience, raising awareness and encouraging men to come forward and get checked. However, prostate cancer is still killing 8,000 men in Scotland every year.
What is the First Minister’s response to the National Screening Committee’s recommendation? Does he agree that, if we do not have a national programme, we should at the very least be encouraging as many men as possible to come forward to get tested, and we should be making those tests as easily available as possible, as they will literally save lives?
John Swinney
Scottish National Party
I very much associate myself with the comments that Douglas Ross has made.
Mr Ross will be aware that the Government relies on the advice from the UK National Screening Committee, as do all Governments across the United Kingdom. That is dispassionate advice, which the screening committee gathers and shares with us. Mr Ross will appreciate that, although many of us will be enormously sympathetic to the point of view that he puts forward, when we receive formal advice, we have to have good reason to depart from it.
At the request of Sir Chris Hoy, I chaired a discussion in Bute house a few weeks ago that drew together a range of different experts on prostate cancer. I wanted to challenge whether more could be done to expand screening, as Sir Chris Hoy was very much requesting, and which request I also heard strongly expressed in Kenny Macintyre’s contribution at the weekend.
We have asked the chief medical officer in Scotland to take forward further scrutiny and consideration of the issue, and ministers in the Scottish Government are very much open to looking afresh at that question. There will be further updates to share with Parliament in due course.
For today, I reinforce Mr Ross’s point and encourage any man who is concerned about this issue to pursue any testing that they think is necessary, given that we all know that the earlier such circumstances are identified, the better the outcomes are likely to be. I welcome Mr Ross’s contribution and assure him of the Government’s focused Intervention to try to address the issue.
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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