Chamber and committees

As noted in S6W-26045 on 18 March 2024, the SQUIRe regime is one of the toughest performance regimes in the UK. It is an operational matter for ScotRail to investigate and rectify areas where performance has not met the standards expected by the Scottish Government. By doing so the overall scoring for ScotRail should improve.

The scoring shows that the SQUIRe regime is operating as expected by highlighting areas where ScotRail is not performing as expected and where improvement is required.

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 .

The Scottish Government is working collaboratively with the UK Government to establish a monitoring and evaluation framework to cover the Investment Zones in Scotland.

The information and metrics included within the framework will be determined by the detailed proposals provided by the Regional Economic Partnerships in Glasgow City and North East Region. The proposals are currently in progress, but will focus on the overall policy goals including innovation and fair work, and will link to the outcomes set out in the Investment Zones Technical Document , published on 8 December 2023.

HM Treasury’s costing for the NHS productivity plan shows funding starting in 2025-26. Therefore no consequentials are expected in 2024-25 in relation to the plan, and the position is only expected to become clear at the next UK spending review.

The Health consequentials of £237 million for 2024-25 arising from the Chancellor’s Spring Statement are less than the £470 million in-year Health funding received for 2023-24 and less than is needed given the pressures faced.

While we are considering the outcome of the UK budget and what it means for NHS Scotland we are committed to passing on frontline health consequentials and have indeed gone further than consequentials in our investment in this budget.

The Regeneration Capital Grant Fund is delivered through a two-stage application and assessment process for each funding round. All applications are assessed by the independent Regeneration Capital Grant Fund Investment Panel against the fund’s criteria set jointly with COSLA. Only those applications assessed as successful by the panel at stage 1 are invited to submit a full stage 2 application. The panel makes final recommendations to the Scottish Government and COSLA on stage 2 applications to be funded.

The Regeneration Capital Grant Fund has supported four projects in the Cowdenbeath constituency since the fund was established as detailed in the following table:

Applications to the Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP) are assessed by an Independent Panel against:

• the basic eligibility criteria;
• ability to meet the aims and objectives of the programme;
• readiness to make use of available grant; and
• wider strategic fit.

Information on the eligibility criteria, aims and objectives for VDLIP can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/vacant-and-derelict-land-investment-programme/pages/overview/ .

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s (SFRS) training procedures are an operational matter for the service to consider. SFRS consults both internal and external subject matter experts to ensure that all latest technologies, developments, lessons learned, and health and safety events are captured to ensure firefighter and public safety.

Funding of £1 million has been prioritised to support Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company from the budget available to support regeneration programmes. Ministers are considering the implications of the budget and options for the delivery of the remaining budget in 2024-25, and the Scottish Government will clarify how the budget will be allocated in due course.

There are a total of 30 current projects supported by regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) and 15 current projects supported by Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP) being delivered over the course of 2023/24 and 2024/25 with grant expenditure anticipated in these two financial years.

Due to the nature of the delivery of capital projects grant profiles can change depending on the progress of the project and we continually work with local authorities to monitor draw down requirements. Final year end grant claims will continue to be submitted over the course of March and early April. This means we cannot confirm the final grant profile for 2024-25 at this time. However information on the current projects supported and the total grant awarded are provided in the following tables:

The Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme has not supported any projects within the Cowdenbeath constituency since its launch in 2021. However it has supported one project in the Fife local authority area, the Ravenscraig Skills Hub, with nearly £500k investment.