Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is responsible for setting the overall policy direction of health services, and for working with and funding NHS Boards and local authorities to ensure they plan and deliver appropriate local services. However, it is the responsibility of local Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) to put in place services to meet local needs, including assessment and access to treatment and support for ADHD.

Health Boards and HSCPs are accountable for the delivery of their services locally. The Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 and supporting legislation, provides a specific right for people to make complaints, raise concerns, make comments and give feedback. The Act also places a duty on NHS Boards to thoroughly investigate and respond to any concerns raised, to take improvement actions where appropriate and to share learning from feedback received. When a person has concerns about their treatment or care, this should be addressed at a local level through the NHS complaints handling procedure. When that is not possible, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is the second and final stage in the complaints process.

Scottish Government officials also engage regularly with Health Boards and HSCPs to discuss the delivery of services.

In the last three years, from June 2022 to June 2025, the average monthly decrease in the number of active registrations on the Scottish Landlord Register has been 137. However, the average monthly increase in registered properties has been 304. The overall change during that period is a decrease in active registrations of 4,932 (2.1%) and an increase in properties of 10,946 (3.2%).

While these changes may point to some landlords choosing to leave the sector, the evidence suggests that their properties are remaining in the sector, or new properties are being offered for rent.

It should be noted that there are some limitations to the administrative data from the landlord register, including the time-lag in landlords deregistering properties that are no longer available to rent. These statistics should therefore be treated with some caution.

The Scottish Minsters are committed to the modernisation and improvement of the regulation of burial, cremation, and funeral services. The Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016 (the 2016 Act) provides for Ministers to make regulations in connection with burial, cremation and inspection; to issue Codes of practice; and to appoint independent Inspectors of burial, cremation and funeral directors.

Work remains ongoing towards full implementation of the Act, and in consultation with a range of stakeholders Ministers have already brought forward a number of regulations. In March of this year the Burial and Cremation (Inspection)(Scotland) Regulations 2025 came into force, providing Inspectors with powers of inspection and enforcement in relation to burial authorities, cremation authorities and funeral directors to ensure that such bodies comply with relevant requirements set out in the Act, the Funeral Director Code of Practice, the Cremation (Scotland) Regulations 2019, the Burial (Applications and Register) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 and the Burial (Management) (Scotland) Regulations 2025.

This inspection and enforcement regime will hold relevant bodies to account for compliance, through inspection against statutory requirements, and will provide clarity for relevant bodies and allow enforcement by Inspectors where non-compliance occurs. In addition, this will improve standards within the funeral sector in Scotland in order to protect the deceased and the public in Scotland.

We currently have a Senior Inspector of Burial, Cremation and Funeral Directors, whose main functions (including powers and duties) are set out in the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016 Act (the 2016 Act) and regulations made under that Act. This includes the provision of an annual report detailing how they have exercised their functions as an Inspector.

The Scottish Government’s Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors programme aims to reduce avoidable CVD death by 20% in 20 years.

A key principle of the programme is the approach of proportional universalism, to reduce associated health inequalities and to extend cardiovascular disease prevention efforts to those we know are at highest risk and particularly underserved by existing models of care

Further information on the Scottish CVD Risk Factors Programme can be found at:

National cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and risk factors toolkit | Right Decisions

The CVD Risk Factors programme is part of a wider suite of work that sits with the Preventative and Proactive care (PPC) programme and is referenced in the Prevention section of the NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan published in March and in Scotland’s Population Health Framework 2025-2035, published in June, in the Equitable Healthcare section.

We will continue to work closely with our stakeholders and third sector organisations to implement positive change for people who experience a stroke.

The Scottish Government does not currently have any plans to publish a national ADHD strategy.

However, the Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence (LDAN) Bill consulted on proposals to introduce a National Strategy for Learning Disabilities and Neurodivergence, supported by local strategies and/or local delivery plans and underpinned by Statutory Guidance. Proposals also included requirements for regular reviews of both national and local strategies, the involvement of lived experience in the development of these strategies and an accountability mechanism to measure effectiveness of strategies.

We have been committed to taking a human rights-based approach to this legislation. This means that the consultation was fully co-designed with people with lived experience via the Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP).

The public consultation closed on 21 April 2024 and received nearly 900 responses during the four months that it was open. This demonstrates the relevance and importance of this legislation for the people of Scotland.

The Scottish Government is continuing work to develop the proposals for the LDAN Bill, and is committed to publishing draft provisions. As before, we will work in partnership with the LEAP members whose support has been invaluable, and the LEAP will be at the heart of our process. In addition, we will meet with individual organisations with an interest whenever that is helpful.

The Scottish Government does not currently have any plans to develop a standard post-diagnostic support pathway for ADHD. The National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People sets out the standards for all services to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs, including ADHD. The Scottish Government is also working with the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to develop national Adult Neurodevelopmental Pathways.

In addition, local authorities have duties under the Additional Support for Learning Act (Scotland) 2004 to identify, provide for and review the additional needs of their pupils. Under the Act an additional support need can arise for any reason and a diagnosis of ADHD is not required before support is put in place.

The Scottish Government is clear that support should be put in place to meet a child’s requirements when they need it. This includes community-based supports and where additional support is needed for learning. However, we recognise that in the case of ADHD, medication can be helpful, and a diagnosis is required to access this. We are working with Boards to ensure that children, young people and adults can access diagnostic services in a timely manner.

The Scottish Government does not currently have any plans to publish national service standards for ADHD assessment, treatment and support.

The National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People sets out the seven standards for all services to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs, including ADHD.

The Specification takes a needs-based approach to providing neurodevelopmental support. It is underpinned by principles of GIRFEC and intended to be delivered by all children’s services partners through a multi-agency approach.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

However, we acknowledge that work is needed to improve the quality of data on neurodevelopmental support and services, including a better understanding of current levels of need and the level of support people currently receive.

We are working with Health Boards and local authorities to improve our understanding of the available data, and how this could be used to support improvements for adults, children and families.

The Scottish Ministers appointed inspectors of burial, cremation, and funeral directors under section 89 of the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016 on 1 October 2023 and 1 October 2024. There is currently one Inspector of burial, cremation, and funeral directors.

In light of the introduction of the inspection regime set out in the Burial and Cremation (Inspection) (Scotland) Regulations 2025, a range of work is in progress to support the appointment of further Inspectors, including establishing the register provided for under regulation 3 of those Regulations, training for Inspectors and support materials for Inspectors.

The National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People sets out the seven standards for all services to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs, including ADHD. The Scottish Government does not currently have any plans to publish specific minimum standards for ADHD post-diagnostic support.