More than 1200 cancer patients waited longer than they should have for treatment, new figures show.

Health boards are expected to ensure no more than 5% of patients who have been "urgently referred" by a primary clinician about a suspicion of cancer begin treatment within 62 days.

Latest figures from NHS Scotland show health boards failed to begin treating 1237 (8.18%) of these patients within the targeted time limit between October 2015 and September 2016.

Only two health boards met the 62-day target in the period: NHS Borders and NHS Lanarkshire.

NHS Scotland has a separate 31-day waiting time target for patients to be seen after decision to be treated has been made.

On average across the country, less than 5% (4.7%) had to wait longer than the target time across the country but five health boards individually missed that target.

Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: "These figures are a scandal. It is completely unacceptable that over 1000 patients waited longer than they were promised for cancer treatment in 2016.

"Performance on the 62-day standard in particular has not been met in three years, yet there appears to be complete inertia from the SNP government.

"Waiting longer for treatment can increase anxiety for patients and their families. These figures aren't dry statistics - they are fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, brothers and sisters across the country not getting the treatment they were promised."

He added: "Labour has been arguing for years that if your doctor suspects you have cancer, you should expect to see a specialist and get a diagnosis in two weeks."

Health secretary Shona Robison defended her government's record on cancer waiting times in response to Sarwar's comments.

Robison said: "I am pleased that the 31-day standard has been met overall for the last year with 95.3% of people receiving treatment within 31 days of a decision to treat with a median wait of only six days.

"However, as our population lives longer, more and more people are being diagnosed with cancer.

"At the current rate, we expect to see a 25% increase in the number of people diagnosed with cancer by 2027."

She added: "However, due to medical advances and improvements in our NHS, people are much more likely to survive cancer in 2016 than at any point in history.

"All of this together means our cancer services are facing unprecedented demand across Scotland.

"That is why last month I set out a series of actions we're taking forward over the next few months to make immediate improvements to capacity within these urological and colorectal services, and reduce the time people wait to be seen."