Public appointment: Members appointed to the Scottish Ambulance Service Board

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Care, Angela Constance MSP, today announced the appointment of Paul Gray and Professor Sir Keith Willett CBE as Members of the Scottish Ambulance Service Board.

Members

Paul Gray has experience in governance in both non-executive and senior executive roles, judicial and public service appointments, and public service leadership. His current portfolio is diverse. He is a lay member of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland, a Member of the Board of the Care Inspectorate, Chair of the Management Advisory Board at the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, an honorary senior research fellow at the University of Glasgow, an honorary fellow of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and a senior advisor to public affairs firm Charlotte Street Partners. He is also a founding director of a small consulting and advisory company, Newlands Murray Ltd. Paul spent 40 years in the civil service, leaving in 2019.  He held a number of director general posts in Scottish government, culminating in the role of chief executive of NHS Scotland and Director General for health and social care.

Keith Willett is Professor of Trauma Surgery at Oxford University and past Chair of South-Central Ambulance Service in England. With 45 years in the NHS, he has extensive experience of trauma and emergency care, clinical outcomes research, leadership, healthcare management, and service transformation. In 2008 as the Department of Health’s first National Clinical Director for Trauma in England he successfully delivered improvement in hip fracture patient care and established regional Major Trauma Centres and networks. As Medical Director for Acute Services for NHS England he had national responsibilities ranging from ambulance services, urgent and emergency care in hospitals, prison healthcare, rehabilitation and major incidents. He was NHS England’s National Director for Emergency Planning and Incident Response from 2018-2022 and as Strategic Commander he prepared the NHS to leave the EU. From January 2020 as Strategic Incident Director he led the NHS response to the coronavirus pandemic. He was awarded a CBE in 2016, and knighted in 2021, for services to the NHS.

Appointments

Paul Gray’s appointment will be for 4 years and will run from 1 May 2026 to 30 April 2030. Keith Willett’s appointment will be for 4 years and will run from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2030. 

The appointments are regulated by the Ethical Standards Commissioner.

Remuneration

The appointments are part-time and attract a remuneration of £16,224 per year for a time commitment of 1 day per week.

Other ministerial appointments

Paul Gray is a Member of the Care Inspectorate, for which he receives a remuneration of £187.08 per day, for a time commitment of 2 days per month. He is also a Member of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland, for which he receives a remuneration of £320.85 per day, for a time commitment of 40 days per year.

Keith Willett does not hold any other ministerial public appointments.

Political activity 

All appointments are made on merit, and political activity plays no part in the selection process.  However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity within the last five years (if there is any to be declared) to be made public.   

Keith Willett and Paul Gray have had no political activity within the last five years. 

Background

As a national frontline service of the NHS in Scotland, we provide an emergency ambulance service to a population of over 5 million people serving all of the nation’s mainland and island communities.  

We are responsible for a range of services for the people of Scotland: accident and emergency response; helping to deliver primary care; providing patient transport; dispatching rapid air ambulance support for critical patients; and being a Category 1 responder for national emergencies. 

There are specific opportunities and challenges associated with remote and rural service delivery and the Scottish Government has set out its vision for Scotland to be a world leader in Remote and Rural Health and Social Care provision.  The Service continues to embrace the opportunity to accelerate collaboration in service redesign and delivery in remote and rural areas with its collective ambition to reform and drive further improvements in its services as an integrated part of the health and care system.