- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 11 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much private sector investment has been leveraged as a result of the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal, and how this is spread between the two local authority areas.
Answer
Funding for the Deal is awarded to the Stirling and Clackmannanshire region rather than individual council areas, including joint projects between the three main Deal partners, Stirling Council, Clackmannanshire Council and University of Stirling. The Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal private sector investment total secured to date is £476,000, with this investment coming through the University of Stirling’s Scotland’s International Environment Centre (SIEC Phase 1) as commissioned work.
All other secured and leveraged investment in the Deal is from the public sector, including academia, or third sector.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 10 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much of the £90.2 million invested through the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal has been invested directly in the (a) Stirling and (b) Clackmannanshire Council area.
Answer
Funding for the Deal is awarded by both Governments to the Stirling and Clackmannanshire region rather than individual Local Authority areas with investment decisions ultimately made by regional partners. This includes joint projects between the three main Deal partners, Stirling Council, Clackmannanshire Council and University of Stirling.
Neither the initial capital investment location nor the lead delivery partner for a specific Deal project conveys where the economic impact of Government investment is realised at Local Authority level. An indicative investment breakdown based on project location includes:
- £21.55 million within Clackmannanshire;
- £62.08 million within Stirling; and
- £6.56 million pan Stirling and Clackmannanshire.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 10 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards the delivery of the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal.
Answer
The Scottish Government and UK Government have made a joint investment commitment of £90.2 million to the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal over a ten year period until the end of March 2030.
The Deal, now in its 6th year of delivery, has spent £34.68 million of this available funding up to the end of quarter 4 of financial year 2024-25. This has resulted in completion of the following five projects:
- restoration of the Japanese Gardens at Cowden;
- a digital hub in Cowie, offering training and business development opportunities;
- Walk, Cycle, Live Stirling active travel project, providing two high quality walking and cycling routes;
- A Regional Energy Masterplan, supporting a strategic whole systems approach to energy across Stirling and Clackmannanshire; and
- transfer of land from the Ministry of Defence to Stirling Council to enable wider regeneration at Forthside.
Meanwhile, the following four projects are in delivery:
- a flexible skills project, providing skills development opportunities to improve the employability of up to 500 individuals;
- an inclusion workers and investment fund, providing tailored employability support to 245 people from traditionally excluded groups;
- Scotland’s International Environment Centre (SIEC), offering research and collaboration opportunities to protect and enhance natural resources; and
- the National Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Hub (NATIH), a research facility and business development hub for sustainable aquaculture food production that is due to open in November 2025.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 10 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many jobs have been directly created as a result of the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal, broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) projects which (i) have been delivered and (ii) are in the delivery phase.
Answer
The Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal has created 82 jobs. Due to the nature of Deal investment, job creation can arise over several years post project completion. These job figures reflect the early delivery stage of the overall Growth Deal with only five projects fully complete to date.
| | Projects delivered: Stirling Council area | Projects in delivery: Stirling Council area | Projects delivered: Clackmannanshire Council area | Projects in delivery: Clackmannanshire Council area | Total |
Stirling Council projects | 2 | 10 | | | 12 |
Clackmannanshire Council projects | | | 32 | 4 | 36 |
University of Stirling projects | 0 | 24 | 0 | 10 | 34 |
Total | 2 | 34 | 32 | 14 | 82 |
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 May 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 9 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has received from the UK Government regarding the projected budget and revised timescales for the delivery of the Emergency Services Network (ESN) in Scotland, and what impact any delays are expected to have on emergency services in Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government received an Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP), Draft Programme Business Case (PBC) from the Home Office in May 2024. This indicated that the Emergency Services Network (ESN) would be delivered by 2029-30.
Since then the Home Office has completed a major re-procurement exercise, which has resulted in the appointment of new commercial suppliers to deliver the Programme. The Home Office is currently updating the 2024 PBC and associated documentation, to reflect the impact of the new suppliers. This information is expected to be shared with partner organisations, including Scottish Government, in the coming weeks.
While the re-procurement exercise has introduced delays into the Programme, this has not had any operational impacts on the emergency services in Scotland, who continue to use the Airwave network for critical communications.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
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Current Status:
Initiated by the Scottish Government.
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 28 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the 2025 Education Improvement Plan, which was referenced to in the 2025 National Improvement Framework (NIF) that was published in December 2024.
Answer
I am pleased to confirm that the 2025 Education Improvement Plan was published today: www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836911227.
The Improvement Plan sets out the actions that will be taken to deliver the seven key educational outcomes set out in the National Improvement Framework, the evidence to support those actions and how we will measure progress against them.
In addition, the Scottish Government also published an update on actions from the 2024 National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan setting out progress on existing actions from across the education and skills landscape: www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836911234.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 9 December 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the (a) value of the role
of physician associate, (b) function that physician associates have in
supporting GPs and (c) contribution that physician associates make to patients
and the NHS.
Answer
Physician associates are valued and welcome members of the NHS Scotland workforce, and will continue to contribute to the Scottish Government's priority of developing a sustainable system that ensures people get the right care, at the right time, and in the right place. Work is being taken forward through our national Medical Associate Professionals Programme Board to identify how the Physician Associate profession can be utilised to best effect going forward.
GP practices, as independent contractors, are responsible for determining their own staff mixes and it is up to individual practices to decide whether or not they wish to employ Physician Associates or any other type of clinician. The work to expand the Multidisciplinary Teams supporting GP practices through the Primary Care Improvement Fund is based on transferring services from GP delivery to delivery by health board employed staff. It is up to health boards to decide how to staff these services, although they must work closely with local communities and stakeholders to ensure that specific local challenges and population need are taken into account.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 6 December 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many physician associates (a) have lost and (b) are losing their roles; what the surrounding circumstances were or are, and what assessment it has made of the potential welfare risks that this may cause to individuals.
Answer
Work is ongoing to improve the availability of data regarding the number and distribution of Physician Associates (PAs) across NHS Scotland. It is expected that these improvements will allow for the more effective analysis of workforce trends for this profession from the beginning of the 2025-26 financial year.
Individual decisions about the employment and deployment of PAs are a matter for Health Boards, many of whom will have considerable experience of utilising this role to good effect. The profession is a valued, long-standing part of the NHS Scotland workforce and it is important that discussions about the role are taken forward in a respectful and supportive manner.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 6 December 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the reportedly more controlled expansion of physician associates in Scotland has led to a safer and more efficient deployment of these healthcare professionals in comparison with other parts of the UK.
Answer
The NHS England Long-Term Workforce Plan, published under the previous UK Government in June 2023, committed to an expansion of Physician Associate (PA) training places with a view to establishing a workforce of 10,000 PAs by 2036-37. No such target for expansion has been set by Scottish Ministers who are clear that any growth of the profession must be gradual and evidence-based. While high profile examples of harm involving physician associates did not take place in Scotland and there is no empirical comparative data between countries on adverse events involving PAs, the Scottish Government’s approach to this role is being informed by a national Programme Board tasked with considering issues including Scope of Practice and supervision. Statutory regulation of the professions by the General Medical Council is due to commence in 13 December, introducing consistent UK-wide standards for education, training and practice with individual professional accountability and meaningful consequences when these are not met.
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 November 2024
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 26 November 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding any impact on fuel poverty in Scotland, what its response is to the reported announcement that the energy price cap will increase by 1.2% for the period covering January to March 2025.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 26 November 2024
