Oral Answers to Questions

Kenneth Stevenson Excerpts

Tuesday 25th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I am happy to report to the hon. Gentleman that we are well on the way towards delivering the 8,500 more mental health staff we promised in our manifesto, with over 6,500 already there. Digital tools can play a role, and I am pleased to report that, given the evolution of our online tools via the NHS app, ensuring that we have high-quality and clinically verified apps will be part of our approach, so that people have access to high-quality digital tools, not ones they have googled on the internet.

[Kenneth Stevenson (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab)]

T6. As a faithful, I commend the Secretary of State for reaffirming his commitment to driving forward digital innovation in the NHS. Does he agree that Scotland should mirror the UK so that we do not fall behind the pace with developments that could be game changing in terms of outcomes for patients and staff alike?

[Dr Ahmed]

While the NHS in Scotland has no app and no plans for a national roll-out, the NHS in England has had an app since 2019, with 71 million logins in October 2025. Three in four people now have the app in their pockets and it has more subscribers in England than Netflix. You may ask, Mr Speaker, why NHS Scotland does not have an app? The answer comes in a freedom of information request by the champion journalist Simon Johnson: when asked about some of the drawbacks of applying the NHS England app in Scotland, they said:

“political optics of adopting an English solution”.

It is time for Analogue John to move over and let Anas Sarwar and Jackie Baillie finally drag the Scottish NHS into the 21st—