We have a point of order from Alison McInnes.
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I refer to rule 7.3.1 of standing orders. During questions on the statement on the sleeper franchise earlier, I referred to the proposal to abolish the sleeper service north of Edinburgh. In response, the Minister for Transport and Veterans said:
“Alison McInnes is just making it up when she says that we proposed to abolish the sleeper. She is just making this kind of stuff up, and it is completely wrong.”
However, any member can go to the Scottish Government website and follow the link to Transport Scotland, where the rail 2014 paper states at paragraph 11.12:
“We are considering a number of options for the future provision of sleeper services, for instance: removing or increasing financial support; and reducing the provision, either through removing the Highland or Lowland service, or by running the Lowland services to and from Edinburgh only.”
[Interruption.]
Order.
Given that we have an out-of-touch transport minister who does not know what his own agency was suggesting, will there be an opportunity for him to come back to the chamber after he has done some basic research and admit that the sleeper service was under threat and that only outrage from people in the north-east of Scotland and the Highlands changed that?
I thank the member for the advance notice of her point of order. As the member is well aware, the Presiding Officers are not responsible for the veracity of the comments that members make in the chamber.
Previous
Scotland’s FutureNext
Business Motions