The freight facilities grant is a bigger amount. When I have been talking to industry—

Which figures are you referring to as having doubled?

This is basic economics, I suppose—it is finance. Even if you had the same numbers of passengers, you would still accrue the subsidy level each and every year thereafter. It is a substantial amount to subsidise passengers. It is a good and popular policy. We are not seeking to remove it unless that is a recommendation of the committee, but I sincerely hope that it is not.

I absolutely appreciate everyone’s concerns around what can be done to ensure that our commitment to Ardrossan is realised. I am not currently in a position to give you the information that everybody is looking for. We are coming to a conclusion. I spoke to the leader of North Ayrshire Council at the tail end of last year. We are very clear that our commitment to Ardrossan is there, but the issue is how we realise that. We need to identify the conclusion of the business plan that we requested.

Of course, coming into this post, I looked at the history of the project. Originally, the partners to deliver the improvements were North Ayrshire Council and Peel Ports. Over the period, the Government has had to become involved and it is one of the items that is at the top of my priority list. I would like to give you information at this session; I cannot, but I am very conscious that I will need to report to the committee as soon as I can.

Much as I would like to, no, I cannot.

That is exactly what we have been looking at—part of looking at the business plan was to identify the cost base.

We are in a better position than that. Although I would not have used those words, I understand why Kevin Hobbs would have wanted to relay that from his perspective. From the Government’s perspective, I can tell you that, as I said, I hope to be in the position sooner rather than later to be able to come to the committee to advise on what our intentions are.

As I said, it is more than that—there is the £18 million that has gone to the consortiums. Ayrshire and Glasgow have come together and a package was announced for that. In fact, we did that when the Scottish Government Cabinet met in Ayr, when I met all the partners that are involved. The funding has gone out. All that I am saying is that there is probably a remainder of funding to go out in this financial year. The majority of the £30 million has been issued and, as part of the proposals, there is leverage—on average, for every £1 of public investment, £3.20 of additional investment is generated from the private sector.

In terms of the deployment, I was in Inverness and announced the allocation for the Highland and north consortium, after which it would start deploying. Obviously, that involves working with partners to develop, implement and deliver the actual chargers.

In addition, you will know that private sector chargers are developing all over the place—for example, I officially opened the rapid charger in Dundee last year. The pace and rate are increasing. You will see that more in deployment next year, but the funding has gone out this year.

I do not think that we will be in that position, but I would rather take the advice from the Climate Change Committee. Part of what we are intending to do is to see what it says in relation to that. I think that we would need to make more progress. I do not think that progress is at the level that it needs to be to make the shift. We are making progress, but we need to identify how we best do that.

Again, I come back to the point about having more reliable public transport for people to use. That is the incentive for people to make the shift, as well as availability, which is one of the key areas.

I know that the committee in its wider analysis is looking at how we tackle climate change and emissions. Reducing car use is important in that regard. However, let us put that into perspective. We know that fewer people are travelling by public transport as more of them are working from home. People choosing to not use their car one day out of five working days and using public transport instead is a 20 per cent change. In addition to having national plans, there is something around how we popularise the use of public transport and make it a real responsibility for individuals. We have to make it achievable for people.

The work that is being done, particularly in the Aberdeen area, continues to develop the scope of that £200 million investment in enhancements. The options selection process for the project concluded in 2023. The final package selected comprises signal enhancements, improvements to station layouts at Dundee, Aberdeen, Arbroath and Montrose, and specific capacity alternations including freight loops to facilitate the mixed operation of faster and slower trains on the same route.

On the challenges, you referred to a position in 2016. For a variety of reasons that I have relayed, involving the Scottish Government’s overall financial challenge, particularly with the capital reductions from the previous UK Government, some of the realisation of those rail investments will not have been made at the speed that we would have liked. However, as I said, that is the most up-to-date position that I can reflect on.