Colin Smyth

Answer · Mairi Gougeon · 24 Jul 2025

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.

Answer · Jim Fairlie · 29 Jul 2025

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.

Answer · Tom Arthur · 6 Aug 2025

I recognise that there has been a significant increase in children and adults seeking ADHD assessments across Scotland, and that this is creating challenges for a range of services.The Scottish Government is working with the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to develop national Adult Neurodevelopmental Pathways, building on the pilots we funded in four NHS Board areas and the subsequent learning and recommendations.We are also continuing to work with NHS Health Boards, including NHS Ayrshire and Arran, and local authorities to support implementation of the National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People. We have recently undertaken a review of the implementation of the Specification and established a new Neurodevelopment Taskforce to drive forward identified recommendations.In addition to investment through Health Boards, we will also be providing £500,000 additional funding in 2025-26 to improve access to neurodevelopmental support for children and young people, including for ADHD assessments. This is in addition to £250,000 provided in 2024-25, which funded a range of individual projects to improve neurodevelopmental assessment and support for children and young people, including projects that support ADHD diagnosis.

Answer · Tom Arthur · 30 Jul 2025

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.

Answer · Tom Arthur · 6 Aug 2025

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.

Answer · Tom Arthur · 6 Aug 2025

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.

Answer · Tom Arthur · 6 Aug 2025

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.

Answer · Neil Gray · 28 Jul 2025

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.