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The delivery of the McCloud Remedy is the key priority for the SPPA, balancing the significant and complex work associated with delivery alongside routine administration.

The scale of challenge that SPPA has faced in delivering the McCloud Remedy cannot be overstated and is one shared by other public sector pension scheme managers across the UK. Although progress is being made, SPPA took the difficult decision to extend the target date of 31 July 2025 for delivery to retired officers to the end of 2025.

This did not constitute a regulatory breach as the extension was made in accordance with the legislation. The SPPA CEO has discussed the decision with both the Pensions Regulator and the Scottish Police Pension Board, and SPPA has written to the remaining members directly to ensure they are kept informed.

SPPA has invested time and personnel to address this broader exercise and has introduced new automated processes that will begin to deliver at pace. SPPA has already delivered approximately 98% of RSS to serving officers and 85% of RSS to retired officers. The remaining cases are more complex, and will take longer to complete manually as they cannot yet be produced through automated processes.

In addition to the £106 million targeted investment announced in May 2025 to address at the longest waits, the Government has now committed a further £4 million to deliver extra dermatology activity, bringing total additional funding for this year to over £110 million.

The additional dermatology funding was allocated to the three NHS Boards with the largest volumes of long waits and is broken down as follows:

The Scottish Government has allocated over £2.5 million to NHS Lothian for dermatology services and is currently working with the Board to develop a plan to support further reductions to the waiting list backlog.

The activity supported by the additional £2.5 million investment will require a lead-in period for full implementation; therefore, it is too early to observe a noticeable difference to waiting times at this stage.

In accordance with current guidance, the Scottish Government’s position is that the assessment process for new pedestrian crossings should address the three main objectives of safety, convenience and accessibility for the most at-risk users. The PV2 assessment process, which identifies suitable crossing facilities based on pedestrian and vehicle numbers at a location, was superseded in 1995. Decisions on suitable pedestrian crossing facilities require a more qualitative approach addressing a variety of site-specific factors. Data relating to pedestrian and vehicle numbers will have relevance to these considerations, but must be viewed in the wider context and should not be used as the sole basis for decisions.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people receive a broad, inclusive, and supportive education that meets their individual needs. Within Curriculum for Excellence, health and wellbeing is a key area of learning and a shared responsibility across the school community.

While the Experiences and Outcomes within Health and Wellbeing and Science currently do not refer explicitly to chronic illnesses, they do provide a framework for exploring the impact of health and wellbeing on learning, resilience, and quality of life. Schools are encouraged to tailor this learning to reflect the needs and experiences of their learners, including increasing awareness and understanding of long-term health conditions where appropriate.

Support for children and young people living with chronic illness is addressed through wider inclusive practices, including the Additional Support for Learning framework and Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC). These policies ensure that individual health needs can be considered through personalised support planning and whole-school approaches to wellbeing.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-30034 on 3 October 2024 and S6W-32189 on 23 December 2024. 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.

Education authorities and other agencies have duties under the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004 to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils, which includes those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A formal diagnosis of ADHD is not required before appropriate support is provided in an early learning or school setting.

Education authorities can ask other agencies (including social work services, health boards and Skills Development Scotland) for help in carrying out their duties under the Act.

As well as providing funding for neurodevelopmental support services, in partnership with COSLA we have undertaken a review of the implementation of the National Neurodevelopmental Specification. This will inform improvements to support health boards and local authorities to deliver the Specification.

GPs do not require “extended resources” to provide NHS prescriptions following a private diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. GPs are contracted and resourced to provide appropriate ongoing treatment and care to all their patients taking account of their specific needs.

GPs should use their own judgement about what treatment is appropriate for patients who have a private diagnosis of any condition.

The Scottish Government recognises that long waits can have an impact on health and wellbeing. Waiting well | NHS inform on NHS Inform provides patients with information to support their health and wellbeing while waiting for health and social care services. This includes information on physical and mental health, as well as advice about practical issues like money worries.

We know many people are still waiting too long and this is not good enough. We are determined do more and our Budget will provide a record £21.7 billion for health and social care, with more than £110 million allocated to health boards to help tackle the longest waits for procedures and operations.

The funding has been assigned to specialty areas for the year ahead where it can have the greatest impact against the longest waits. This includes more than £12 million for ophthalmology.

The Scottish Government has confirmed that the replacement of the Edinburgh eye pavilion is a strategic priority, and the 2025-26 Budget provides the necessary funding to allow the development of the business case.

NHS Lothian has been asked to progress the business case and development of the design and timeline will form part of this work, which will take time. During an update to stakeholders in March, NHS Lothian advised an estimated timeline of 6 years.

It is usual for the business case process, construction and commissioning to take a number of years and there will be greater clarity on timeline once the business case process is complete.