The Court of Session has granted permission for judicial review proceedings against Tayside Health Board’s failure to provide medical assessments and treatments for adults with suspected Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to proceed to a substantive hearing in late July 2026.
Govan Law Centre’s (GLC) client resides in Perth and Kinross where no adult ADHD-only assessments have taken place over the last 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”.
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.
It is understood that this is the first challenge of its kind in Scotland against a NHS health board’s failure to provide ADHD assessments for adults.
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 agent.
