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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.

The Scottish Government has committed to publishing a full set of cost benefit assessments for the forthcoming climate change plan. The upcoming CCP will cover the period from 2026-2040 and will give the best view of the policies required to support our pathway to net zero. The plan will also be subject to, and will publish alongside, a suite of impact assessments including equalities and island impact assessments that will provide particular focus on groups with specific considerations.

The following table shows a) the number of Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme cardholders broken down to local authority level as of 31 May 2025, and b) the number of journeys, broken down by local authority, made through the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme since its launch in January 2022 up to 31 May 2025. Journeys are based on the local authority in which the card was issued, therefore some journeys will have been undertaken out with the local authority area.

The Scottish Government believes that every child should be given the opportunity to learn to swim, it is a life skill that can save lives.

Scottish Swimming launched their National Primary School Swimming Framework in September 2024. During the development of the Framework, a number of pilots were undertaken across nine local authorities to establish the best mechanism to deliver school based swimming lessons. As a result, the Framework’s key principles and resources have been designed to be flexible and adaptable to meet the many different challenges and circumstances faced by local authorities and schools.

The Framework can be used by education authorities and schools to improve school swimming provision and enhance the existing school swimming experience.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with sportscotland, Scottish Swimming, and various local and national partners, including the City of Edinburgh Council, to consider the best approach for a continued roll out of a National Framework for school swimming in the near future.

Transport Scotland does not hold data on rejections or referrals so would be unable to provide the proportions as requested. However, this information would be held by individual local authorities.

Information on the types of planned NHS operations that have the highest current average waiting times is not held by Scottish Government. Public Health Scotland (PHS) uses the national waiting times datamart to collect electronic patient records covering the waits that patients experience waiting for treatment as an inpatient or day-case under the Treatment Time Guarantee.

This data source can be used routinely to identify the specialty of treatment. However, although the records are designed to collect coded information on the procedure that is planned for the patient, this information is often either incomplete, lacking in essential detail and/or its accuracy cannot be assured. Consequently, PHS is not currently able to report accurately on waiting times to this level of detail.

The table below shows the number of ongoing waits along with the median (days) and 90th percentile (days) by sex for the top five specialties that have the largest median wait across NHSScotland for all specialties covered by the Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) at 31 March 2025.

The statistics provided include the median wait and not an average. The median is used to indicate that roughly half of patients waited less than the statistic and half of patients waited longer. The median is used because an average (mean) could potentially be skewed incorrectly by a small number of very long waits that may be recorded in error in the national data. The 90th percentile is also included; this is used to indicate that 9 out of 10 ongoing waits at month-end are waiting less than or equal to the number of days shown.

Table 1 – Total number of ongoing waits as an inpatient or day case for NHSScotland, at specialty level broken down by sex for the top five specialties (that have the highest median wait) across NHSScotland, at 31 March 2025

The following table shows the number of ongoing waits along with the median (days) and 90th percentile (days) by sex for the patients covered by the Treatment Time Guarantee (TTG) at 31 March 2025.

The statistics provided include the median wait and not an average.

The median is used to indicate that roughly half of patients waited less than the statistic and half of patients waited longer. The median is used because an average (mean) could potentially be skewed incorrectly by a small number of very long waits that may be recorded in error in the national data. The 90th percentile is also included; this is used to indicate that 9 out of 10 ongoing waits at month-end are waiting less than or equal to the number of days shown.

Table 1 – Total number of ongoing waits as an inpatient or day case for NHSScotland, at all specialty level broken down by sex, at 31 March 2025

Transport Scotland considers it good practice for local authorities to refer applicants for an independent mobility assessment, if that is required to make a clear and robust decision on eligibility.

An independent mobility assessment should be conducted by a regulated healthcare professional, such as an occupational therapist, who acts upon the instruction of the local authority to provide an assessment of blue badge entitlement.

Occupational therapists or physiotherapists are best placed to assess an applicant's eligibility, (independent of the applicants GP) due to their specific training courses, accredited by their professional bodies and subsequent registration with the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC).

Transport Scotland does not collect data on the numbers of assessors or their training records. This information would be held by individual local authorities.

Delivery of the Blue Badge scheme is the responsibility of local authorities. Transport Scotland does not formally evaluate local authority operations surrounding the scheme.

The National Transport Accessibility Steering Group brings together Transport Scotland officials and stakeholders (Regional Transport Partnerships, Community Planning Partnerships, transport operators and Disabled People’s Organisations) to support the delivery of the Accessible Travel Framework (ATF). Workstream 4 of the ATF delivery plan seeks to ensure there is continuous improvement in the delivery of the Blue Badge policy.

Delivery of the Blue Badge scheme is the responsibility of local authorities. While Transport Scotland does not formally assess Blue Badge delivery, officials regularly engage with local Blue Badge teams and stakeholders to encourage a consistent approach to Blue Badge delivery across Scotland.