SCOTLAND’S NHS is lagging behind England in Covid-19 recovery, according to a leading think tank.

In a new report, one of a series being published before next week’s Scottish Budget, the Institute for Fiscal Studies looked at a range of metrics across the UK and found that the number of day cases is the only area of hospital care in Scotland which has returned to pre-Covid levels.

On every other indicator, including A&E and cancer treatment waiting times, the service had gone backwards since the last quarter of 2019, in contrast with NHS England, which only fell short on waits for elective referrals.

Report author research economist Max Warner said: “The Scottish and English NHS are now recovering differently from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The UK government has been honest about the poor performance of the English NHS. It is vital the Scottish government does the same.”

Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie said the report showed “Scottish hospitals are buckling under the strain of SNP incompetence.”

But SNP First Minister John Swinney responded: “We have comparatively greater challenges in the Scottish population compared to the population of the rest of the United Kingdom.”