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Stage of Treatment Waiting Times

This dataset reports key statistics on Inpatient, Day case and New Outpatient Waiting Times, at NHS boards across Scotland. Starting from the October 2025 release, this set of statistics now contains two additional data files to be refreshed on a monthly basis, containing performance and distribution of waits data for the most recent 25 months.

In December 2023, the Scottish Government published an update to the Waiting Times Guidance, which replaces the 2012 version. The latest statistics are underpinned by revised calculation rules for adjusted waits that are aligned to the guidance. This has been applied to all waits that were open on 30 July 2025. Some waits will be shorter and therefore length of wait statistics are not directly comparable before and after the cutover date. Please see the PHS impact assessment - 2023 Waiting Times Guidance paper for further detail.

For more information on stage of treatment waiting times see the NHS waiting times - stage of treatment publications. The date of the next release can be found on our list of forthcoming publications.

Due to the live nature of local Patient Management Systems and the national data mart, historical trend data are routinely refreshed from one publication to the next, leading to slight revisions in statistics, particularly those for the previous month end.

Across NHSScotland, the net effect of all revisions for new outpatients was a decrease of -0.6% (-3,491) in the number of ongoing waits and an increase of 0.2% (+187) in the number of attendances compared to previously published figures for month ending 30 September 2025. Drawing the same comparison for inpatient and day case treatment, the net effect was an increase of 0.6% (+1,013) ongoing waits and 0.4% (+85) admissions.

For more information, please see the Data quality section of the website.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Source Waiting Times Data Warehouse. Homeopathy, mental health and obstetrics specialties are not included. Data from 1 October 2012 to 31 March 2014, for Inpatient and Day case admissions was sourced via aggregate returns from NHS Boards. NHS Boards local systems have since been modified to comply with TTG, and data from 1 April 2014 is sourced from the warehouse again.
Author [Waiting Times](phs.waitingtimes@phs.scot)
Last Updated November 25, 2025, 13:25 (GMT)
Created March 20, 2020, 14:39 (GMT)
Contact Address Public Health Scotland, Gyle Square, 1 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh EH12 9EB
Subject NHS Waiting Times
Frequency Monthly/Quarterly
Time frame of data and timeliness Data from 1 October 2012 to date. There have been no delays in reporting.
Coverage Covers all NHS Boards in Scotland.
Completeness PHS carried out a project in 2009 to quantify and understand the differences between New Ways and other PHS data sources (SMR00, SMR01 and ISD(S)1). Provisional analysis of refresh data showed that approximately 98% of data submitted to the Warehouse is published.
Accuracy Detailed information on validation is available at the PHS Website (See Link 1). PHS work closely with NHS boards to ensure that published waiting times information accurately reflects locally held data. The data is subject to a sign-off procedure each month before publication where the data for the previous month is confirmed by the submitting board. PHS carry out detailed fitness for publication every month including comparisons to previous figures and expected trends. Further information can be found at the Data Quality webpage on the PHS website (See Link 2).
Continuity of data From 1 October 2012, the introduction of Treatment Time Guarantee resulted in changes to the waiting times data mart which brought the calculation of outpatient waits in line with inpatients and day cases to make them consistent with the guidance on TTG. In December 2023, the Scottish Government published an update to the Waiting Times Guidance, which replaces the 2012 version. The latest statistics are underpinned by revised calculation rules for adjusted waits that are aligned to the guidance. This has been applied to all waits that were open on 30 July 2025, further information regarding this change can be found in the PHS Impact Assessment paper under Regulations and Guidance (See Link 4). Data from 1 October 2012 to 31 March 2014, for inpatient and day case admissions were sourced via aggregate returns from NHS boards. NHS boards local systems have since been modified to comply with TTG, and data from 1 April 2014 are sourced from the warehouse again. Waits of patients on a waiting list that are transferred to another board, hospital or speciality in order to be seen at a new outpatient clinic or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case are now included in ongoing figures. Historically, these waits would be removed from the count of ongoing waits in the publication release that followed the recording of a transfer to avoid duplication. However, recent analysis indicates the reporting of such transferred waits is inconsistent across NHS boards and services. Whilst investigations into this matter continue, it is now appropriate to include transferred waits within the count of ongoing waits as the impact of duplication is minimal, with the exception of outpatient ophthalmology transfers to NHS Golden Jubilee which are excluded from the count of ongoing waits from October 2023 onwards. From October 2025, a change has been introduced in reporting the health board of treatment, the purpose of which is to report solely against the NHS board aligned to the hospital where the appointment or treatment takes place. Notably, this change also means that waiting times statistics now clearly state treatment delivered by the independent sector in cases where the NHS has commissioned the treatment. Previously, these figures were included in the local referring NHS board's statistics. It should be noted that national-level NHSScotland figures remain unaffected.
Concepts and definitions The Waiting Times Data Warehouse consists of a series of 'open' records for patients still waiting for treatment and 'closed' records when patients are removed from the waiting list. All patients who are added to a waiting list for inpatient or day case treatment, for a new outpatient appointment at a consultant or dentist-led clinic or for a return outpatient appointment where a procedure is expected to be carried out should be included. Specialties with a low volume of patients at Scotland level have been excluded from the specialty breakdown therefore the specialty breakdown will not match the total presented under 'All Specialties'. The specialty breakdown figures will also differ slightly from the publication due to the open data being broken down to three digit specialty code whereas the publication is present at two digit level. New Ways Definitional Rules and Guidance is available: New Ways Rules & Guidance (3) TTG rules and guidance is available in the following documents: Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 (5) The Regulations and Directions under the Act - CEL 17 (2012) (6) The Regulations (Amended) under the Act - Amendment Regulations (2014) (7) The Directions under the Act - Directions (2019) (8) Treatment Time Guarantee Guidance – CEL 32 (2012) (9) Updated version of the NHSScotland Waiting Time Guidance (2023) (10)
Disclosure The PHS protocol on Statistical Disclosure Protocol (11) is followed.
Revision statement Across NHSScotland, the net effect of all revisions for new outpatients was a decrease of -0.6% (-3,491) in the number of ongoing waits and an increase of 0.2% (+187) in the number of attendances compared to previously published figures for month ending 30 September 2025. Drawing the same comparison for inpatient and day case treatment, the net effect was an increase of 0.6% (+1,013) ongoing waits and 0.4% (+85) admissions.
Official statistics designation National Statistics
Relevance and key uses of the statistics Waiting times are important to patients and are a measure of how the NHS is responding to demands for services. Measuring and regular reporting of waiting times highlights where there are delays in the system and enables monitoring of the effectiveness of NHS performance throughout the country. The NHS in Scotland has been set a number of targets for maximum waiting times including from 1 October 2012, Treatment Time Guarantee. Other uses of the data include information requests for a variety of customers, e.g. research charities; public companies; freedom of Information requests; information support to NHS Boards; health intelligence work; parliamentary questions and NHS Performs.
Format csv
Language English
Links

(1) PHS - Waiting Times Datamart

(2) PHS - Waiting Times Data Quality

(3) New Ways Rules and Guidance

(4) PHS impact assessment - 2023 waiting times guidance

(5) Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011

(6) Regulations and Directions (2012)

(7) Regulations (Amended) (2014)

(8) Patient Rights (Treatment Time Guarantee) Directions 2019

(9) Treatment Time Guarantee Guidance

(10) NHSScotland Waiting Time Guidance

(11) Public Health Scotland Statistical Disclosure Protocol

(12) Stage of Treatment Waiting Times publication

(13) UK Government Open Data site

(14) England HSCIC Publications

(15) Welsh Publications

(16) Northern Irish Health Publications