Chamber and committees

The consultation on New Year's Day trading closed on 24 August and attracted over 1,860 responses. The responses are being analysed and I will inform the Parliament of a decision once the analysis is complete.

The Scottish Government is committed to completing the A90/A937 Laurencekirk Junction Improvement as soon as possible.

Transport Scotland continues to negotiate with objectors to resolve their concerns as soon as possible and also continues to work with Aberdeenshire Council to find a solution to their decision to close the existing Oatyhill Bridge to traffic. Should Transport Scotland be unsuccessful in removing all objections a public local inquiry may be required. As with all trunk road projects this is the appropriate forum for considering objections received and not withdrawn.

Delivery of the scheme itself can only commence if it is approved under the relevant statutory procedures, at which point a timetable for its progress can be set.

Safety of passengers on our railway is paramount and the British Transport Police (BTP) is accountable to the Scottish Government through the Scottish Railway Policing Committee.

I recently met with Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi of the BTP and the topic of women’s safety on the rail network was discussed. The Chief Constable highlighted to me the campaigns currently running across the rail network to promote the reporting of unwanted sexual behaviour and a campaign against sexual harassment on the network.

More information on the campaigns can be accessed via:-

Campaigns | British Transport Police (btp.police.uk)

ScotRail has commenced the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) and the timetable consultation process will contribute to this assessment. The purpose of the consultation is to enable passengers and stakeholders to provide specific feedback on how the proposals impact their journey compared to ScotRail’s current timetable and will allow completion of the EIA prior to finalising the timetable from May 2022 onwards.

Following the completion of the timetable consultation, a copy of the EIA document would be available directly from ScotRail.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02844 on 23 September 2021. 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 now determining how this work will proceed and the resourcing it requires, as we do for delivering our commitments across the whole range of our responsibilities in the interests of the people of Scotland.

ScotRail will continue to serve the diverse range of communities across Scotland, reflecting their changing travel needs. ScotRail’s proposed timetable for May 2022 would provide more seats than the current timetable and the vast majority of customers will find either no change to their current service or that their service improves with a more regular interval between services and/or some more trains provided each day.

A range of civil servants will be responsible for overseeing different aspects of work relating to an independence referendum. Overall leadership of the civil service supporting the Scottish Government lies with the Permanent Secretary and Executive Team.

Yes, this remains Scottish Government position. We strongly discourage trade with all illegal settlements, including those in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

In their most recent CAMHS Waiting Times Data Quality Report, Public Health Scotland published that NHS Grampian are experiencing challenges reporting on “did not attend appointment” (DNA) due to the functionality of their current patient management system and database. Work is ongoing to rectify this and NHS Grampian anticipate that they will be able to provide this to Public Health Scotland by the end of 2021 when they expect to have transitioned to their new patient management system.

https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/8867/data-quality.pdf