Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing today to express my serious concern at the deliberate spread of misinformation online by Mr Michael Shanks, MP for Rutherglen, regarding Scotland’s NHS.
Given Mr Shanks is a UK Government Minister and given public office holders should uphold the 7 Nolan principles, including honesty and openness, it is deeply worrying he has so blatantly and deliberately shared misinformation on a matter so important as health.
On 15 November 2025, Mr Shanks posted a video on x.com claiming that the Scottish Government is ‘airbrushing’ waiting times figures. Specifically, Mr Shanks stated: “If you have been waiting months or even years for an appointment and for some reason the first date you’re not able to make, well the clock gets reset. It looks like the waiting times are going down, but in reality it’s the same waiting lists, the same patients”. This is a deliberate misrepresentation of official statistics released by the independent body Public Health Scotland (PHS) and of the decision taken independently by PHS on how waiting times are reported each month.
Mr Shanks goes on to suggest that the Scottish Government has ‘meddled’ with official statistics for political gain which is not only grossly inappropriate for a UK Minister to state but is deeply offensive to the hard-working NHS staff who are working tirelessly to bring down waits.
Not only is Mr Shanks wrong, but he also contradicts his Welsh Labour colleagues in Government who made very similar changes to how they report waiting times in April. These changes were introduced by PHS independently from the Scottish Government and are meant to support more transparency of waiting lists and times for patients.
Mr Shanks, and indeed many of his Labour MP colleagues, have also repeatedly spread misinformation that 12,000 people are on a waiting list. Public Health Scotland clearly state that waiting lists should not be added together as a patient may be waiting for multiple appointments or admissions at the same time. This means the statistics do not reflect the actual number of individuals involved, but the number of waits. I understand Public Health Scotland has already had to request a correction to these claims from the Labour Party.
These inaccurate claims made by Mr Shanks are harmful to public trust and given the position of Mr Shanks as an MP and UK Government Minister, I would be grateful if you could please investigate this matter urgently.
Kind regards,
Kevin
Kevin Stewart MSP
Aberdeen Central
Related links
Letter from Penny Young to Michael Shanks MP – waiting times in England and Scotland
Letter from Penny Young to Kevin Stewart MSP – waiting times in England and Scotland