More than 150 children have been left with significant hearing difficulties due to failings in the standard of tests carried out by NHS Lothian.

An extensive expert review conducted independently by the British Academy of Audiology (BAA) identified 155 children as having “significant concerns” and three areas of the health board’s paediatric audiology service as “containing a very high risk of significant failure”.

NHS Lothian has apologised following the publication of the report on Thursday.

The Scottish Government later confirmed NHS Lothian has been escalated to stage three of the NHS Board Performance Escalation Framework for paediatric audiology performance and service delivery.