Legal challenge against NHS Tayside’s failure to provide ADHD assessments for adults failure to provide ADHD assessments for adults
Govan Law Centre (GLC) has raised judicial review proceedings in the Court of Session against Tayside Health Board’s failure to provide medical assessments and treatments for adults with suspected Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Our client resides in Perth and Kinross where no adult ADHD-only assessments have taken place over the last 3 to 4 years. NHS Tayside operates a provision, criterion or practice (PCP) not to provide medical assessments for adults with ADHD symptoms, referred to them by GPs, unless such patients have a “co-occurring mental health condition”.
Email: info@scottishadhdcoalition.org
Website: www.scottishadhdcoalition.org
Location: Scotland, United Kingdom
NHS Tayside confirmed in a FOI response that the “number of individuals specifically awaiting an ADHD assessment is 610 across Perth and Kinross and I can confirm that there have been no assessments for only ADHD over the past 3 calendar years. However, we have undertaken all assessments on those individuals who have been referred into the service with a co-occuring presentation such as a complex mental health issue as well as symptomatology of ADHD”.
NHS Tayside covers the local authority areas of Perth and Kinross, Dundee City and Angus. The petition proceeds with five principal grounds of challenge, summarised as follows:
- The Health Board’s PCP was ultra vires of the NHS (Scotland) Act 1978 and the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 and was also irrational and unreasonable;
- The Health Board’s PCP discriminated against the petitioner by treating him unfavourably by reason of his disability and symptoms of ADHD, contrary to sections 15 and 29 of the Equality Act 2010 (2010 Act);
- The Health Board’s PCP discriminated against the petitioner, and other adults with perceived ADHD symptoms, in comparison to non-disabled persons requiring medical health assessments and treatment from the respondent, contrary to sections 13, 19, 23 and 29 of the 2010 Act;
- The Health Board ought to have made reasonable adjustments to its PCP to ensure that adults with a disability or perceived disability because of ADHD were able to access medical health assessments and treatment for ADHD in terms of sections 20 and 29(7) of the 2010 Act; and
- The Health Board failed to properly exercise its duties to undertake an adequate Equality Impact Assessment (“EQIA”) in terms of section 149 of the 2010 Act and the 2012 Regulations before implementing its PCP and failed to properly consult service users about its PCP at common law.
The petition was lodged at Court on Monday, 24 November 2025; it will be formally served on Tayside Health Board at its headquarters in Dundee. The petition requires to obtain permission to proceed by a Lord Ordinary in order to secure a substantive hearing.
The instructing solicitor is Rachel Moon, Firm Partner at GLC. GLC’s Mike Dailly, Solicitor Advocate appears on behalf of the petitioner and Laura McDonagh, Partner at Drummond Miller LLP, acts as Edinburgh agents.
Published 25 November 2025
Statement from the Scottish ADHD Coalition
Response of the Scottish ADHD Coalition to the statement made to the Scottish Parliament by Tom Arthur MSP, Minister for Wellbeing in which he stated that “no system in the world could meet ADHD and autism assessment demands”.
“The coalition recognises the pressures placed on the NHS by a surge in demand for neurodevelopmental assessment and treatment but takes issue with the fatalistic attitude of the minster and many health boards which now appear to have given up on some of the most vulnerable members of our communities who as a result will suffer increased morbidity and mortality, and poorer life outcomes.
Rates of diagnosis in Scotland are extremely low in comparison with some of our near neighbours which suggests that as a nation we have failed to meet needs over a considerable period of time and now face an inevitable backlog caused by poor workforce planning and weaknesses in the early recognition of neurodevelopmental symptoms.
96% of adults in Scotland with ADHD have not been diagnosed and receive no treatment for this debilitating condition.
Something has clearly gone seriously wrong with our healthcare system, and we urge the Scottish Government and health boards to learn from nations that have been more successful in diagnosing and treating ADHD.
To this end we request that a concerted effort is made to establish why Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands and Canada have managed to address a health challenge that the Scottish Government believes is beyond our own current capabilities.
The Coalition recognises the efforts of clinical professionals who are under enormous pressure and who are attempting to develop innovative solutions to a problem that is not of their own making, but feel that there is insufficient political investment in mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders nor a willingness to learn from those more successful than ourselves.”