Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee 24 September 2025
Finally, PE2165, which was lodged by Michelle Moir, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to help improve awareness of functional neurological disorder by providing funding for training and educational resources for medical professionals, including general practitioners, paramedics, call handlers, employers and wider society, on the symptoms and impacts of FND.
From the SPICe briefing, we find that functional disorders include dissociative seizures, functional movement disorders such as tremors or spasms, and functional limb weakness. The briefing helpfully points to the introduction of a national FND pathway in Scotland in 2024, but suggests that it is not clear what training is available to primary care medical and nursing staff to assist with diagnosis in primary care.
The Scottish Government considers the asks of the petition not to be achievable, as
“Developing and disseminating new resources to provide training and education to medical professionals requires additional budget not currently available”.
The Government also considers that the concerns raised in the petition are addressed in current work such as the FND pathway; a project for a dedicated clinical network in NHS Lothian that is due to conclude this autumn; and a pilot study in NHS Grampian that looks to enhance knowledge and diagnosis of FND. The additional submission from the petitioner, however, contains a series of questions stemming from the Government’s response, including on the need for mandatory rather than just voluntary training, on the public sharing of data from the two regional projects that are under way, and on the Government’s next steps.
Are there any comments or suggestions as to how we might proceed?