Chamber and committees

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 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39413 on 6 August 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The regulation of medicines is reserved to the UK Parliament and the eligibility of individuals to prescribe, supply or administer medicines relies upon both profession and medicine-specific amendments to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. The Scottish Parliament and Scottish Ministers have no statutory role in this matter.

Scottish Government sets the strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters – including staffing for prescribing medication and treatment – are in the first instance the responsibility of the relevant NHS Board.

We continue to work closely with health boards and clinical professionals across Scotland to understand challenges regarding the recruitment and retention of professionals trained to prescribe ADHD medication.

To address specific challenges in the recruitment and retention of psychiatrists in Scotland we established a Working Group which has recently reported to Ministers (23 June 2025). Funding also continues to be provided to Boards for the additional roles to help mental health pharmacy services including within community mental health pharmacy support to improve medication use and prescribing practices.

The Scottish Government’s guidance on Welfare at the time of Killing in Salmon Farming, published on 17 July 2025, is based on the recommendations made by the UK Government's Animal Welfare Committee and developed in conjunction with the Scottish farmed salmon industry, Animal Plant and Health Agency (APHA) and animal welfare organisations.

The Scottish Government takes the welfare of farmed fish very seriously and the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing is assured by the requirement at Article 3.1 of retained Council Regulation (EC) 1099/2009 that ‘animals shall be spared any avoidable pain, distress or suffering during their killing and related operations’. We have no current plans to introduce further legislation.

The information requested on how many clinicians in Scotland are currently qualified to prescribe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication, broken down by (a) profession and (b) NHS board is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government takes the welfare of farmed fish very seriously and has already committed to exploring options for how to best to set welfare standards for farmed fish during production, as set out in its response to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee’s recommendations (13 March 2025) following its enquiry into salmon farming in Scotland.

Scottish Government officials have now looked further into this matter, and in relation to the member's previous questions S6W-30076, S6W-30077 and S6W-30078, we can provide the following further information.

On question S6W-30076 (To ask the Scottish Government what due diligence was carried our prior to it providing funding to the group of companies referred to in the BBC's recent reporting on modern slavery within the Scottish fishing sector):

As part of the due diligence process for the historical schemes in question, grantees were required to ensure that they and anyone acting on their behalf comply with the relevant law. The scheme rules and eligibility criteria included, where appropriate, assessment of any previous relevant offences and convictions.

On questions S6W-30077 and S6W-30078 (To ask the Scottish Government whether it was aware that there were ongoing police investigations into the companies referred to in the BBC's recent reporting on slavery in the Scottish fishing sector when it awarded any funding to those companies: and to ask the Scottish Government whether it was aware that workers at the companies referred to in the BBC's recent reporting on slavery in the Scottish fishing sector had been recognised by the Home Office as victims of human trafficking when it awarded any funding to those companies):

Any form of human trafficking or exploitation is of course totally unacceptable. Whilst Scottish Government officials may from time-to-time be aware of the existence or generalities of specific Police Scotland investigations, or be informed of relevant outcomes following their conclusion, they are not privy to detailed investigatory or procedural information. A live police investigation or sub-judice proceedings are not automatically grounds for refusing funding unless and until those proceedings had concluded and resulted in a conviction for a relevant offence, with decisions taken on a case-by-case basis. Historic funding schemes were subject to the relevant scheme rules and eligibility criteria which included, where appropriate, assessment of any previous relevant offences and convictions. That continues to be the case for the current Marine Fund Scotland funding scheme.

As part of the Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) has published a number of clinical pathways and guidance, co-designed with clinicians from specialty delivery groups to manage patients referred routinely for colonoscopy. This includes the recently published qFIT clinical consensus document and National guidance for specifically managing Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) symptoms. It is for Health Boards and clinicians to embed these pathways locally and ensure capacity within the six week diagnostic standard. The pathways are published on Health Board websites, and it is expected all boards should be implementing these locally.

Clinicians can also refer to IBD UK’s IBD Standards for advice on delivering high-quality care at every point in a patient’s journey.