- Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 28 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance is given to local authorities on assessing and validating bus operators’ returns in respect of the use of their services by concessionary travel card holders.
Answer
Since the introduction of theScotland-wide Free Bus Concession Travel Scheme for Older and Disabled People on1 April 2006, the responsibility of assessing and validating all bus operators’claims for reimbursement lies with Transport Scotland and not the localauthorities. The vast majority of claims are received direct from the busoperators although some are submitted to us via their local authorities.
- Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 28 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance is given to local authorities on the operation of the national concessionary travel scheme.
Answer
Transport Scotland issued guidancenotes to local authorities and Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (who act onbehalf of the 12 Strathclyde local authorities) giving details of the eligibilitycriteria, the application process and the benefits of the scheme. Transport Scotland officialsare readily available to offer information, guidance and support to localauthorities.
In addition, information leafletsproduced by Transport Scotland have been distributed to all local authorities for thebenefit of staff and their customers.
- Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 27 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance has been given to local authorities on external tendering for the operation of school bus services and whether a pilot tendering system for improved operation of these services will be trialled.
Answer
The Scottish Executive providesinformation on procurement policy and general guidance for the Scottish publicsector.
The Executive’s guidance toeducation authorities on provision of school transport includes advice oncontracting with bus providers. The guidance is on the Scottish Executivewebsite, at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/School-Education/18056/schooltransportation.It is for authoritiesthemselves to negotiate with local transport providers on the terms andconditions of school transport contracts. Ministers cannot intervene in thedetail of those negotiations.
The Scottish Executive hasno plans to pilot a new tendering system.
- Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 24 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) monthly and (b) annual cost is of the Bus Route Development Grant paid through Fife Council to Stagecoach for services other than its service from Inverkeithing to Edinburgh Airport, its number 99 service in the St Andrews to Dundee corridor and its number 78 service between Dunfermline and High Valleyfield; whether these services were put out to tender, and what the monthly ridership figures are for the most recent period for which information is available.
Answer
For the Kirkcaldy toGlenrothes and the Townhill to Dunfermlineservices, Fife Council has been granteda maximum allocation in Bus Route Development Grant funding of £350,000 and£590,000 respectively over the three year life of the project. Within thatmaximum, the actual cost and phasing of payments will depend on the performanceof the services.
The Bus Route DevelopmentGrant guidance states that, as projects should be identified in conjunctionwith the bus operator(s) whom it is intended will run them, the services shouldnot be tendered.
We have no current plans topublish operator specific figures with regard to financial or passengerinformation. Such information is commercially in confidence and it would not bein the public interest for it to be disclosed.
- Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 24 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) monthly and (b) annual cost is of the Bus Route Development Grant paid through Fife Council to Stagecoach for its number 99 service in the St Andrews to Dundee corridor; whether this service was put out to tender, and what the monthly ridership figures are for the most recent period for which information is available.
Answer
For the St Andrews toDundee service, Fife Council has been granteda maximum allocation in Bus Route Development Grant funding of £593,000 over thethree year life of the project. Within that maximum, the actual cost and phasingof payments will depend on the performance of the service.
The Bus Route Development Grantguidance states that, as projects should be identified in conjunction with the busoperator(s) whom it is intended will run them, the services should not be tendered.
We have no current plans to publishoperator specific figures with regard to financial or passenger information. Suchinformation is commercially in confidence and it would not be in the public interestfor it to be disclosed.
- Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 24 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance is given to local authorities on the composition and membership of strategic transport partnerships, including on representation of community transport operators, and whether it will provide details of community transport operators’ representation on strategic transport partnerships throughout Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Executivepublished guidance on the membership of the seven regional transportpartnerships in its document Scotland’s Transport Future: Regional Transport Partnerships– Guidance on Membership in December 2005.
The guidance states that themajority of members will be drawn from local authorities within the region withabout one-third of the members being drawn from outwith the councils. Non-councillormembers were appointed by Scottish ministers, as individuals, based on meritand in line with the principles of public appointments.
No community transportoperators are currently members of the regional transport partnerships. Theguidance allows the regional transport partnerships to appointobservers/advisers to their partnerships; they do not need the consent ofScottish ministers.
- Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 24 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance is given to local authorities on the operation of quality bus interchange and corridor projects; what contribution to these projects is required from bus operators, and what guidance is given on monitoring these projects.
Answer
The Transport (Scotland)Act 2001 gave transport authorities powers to implement Quality Measures intheir areas including Quality Contracts and Quality Partnerships. Guidance onthe use of Quality Measures is contained in Guidance on Part 2 (Bus Services)of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001.
A number of quality businterchange and corridor projects have been supported by the devolved Governmentin Scotland under awards to local authorities over the five rounds of thePublic Transport Fund (PTF). PTF projects were required to provide regularmonitoring returns to the Executive until the award was fully claimed. While no specific guidance was issued on the operation of suchprojects, the bidding guidance emphasisedthat projects were more likely to be successful if the bid was able todemonstrate that contributions would be obtained from parties who woulddirectly benefit, such as transport operators and private developers.
- Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 24 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance has been given to local authorities on the (a) operation of, (b) funding of and (c) obtaining of best value from local demand-responsive transport travel dispatch centres and minibus management centres, including guidance on whether these should be operated in-house or tendered.
Answer
We have drawn local authorities’attention to guidance in consultants’ reports. I refer the member to the answerto question S2W 29835 on 24 November 2006. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the searchfacility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 24 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what competition criteria have to be addressed in applications by local authorities for funding under the Bus Route Development Grant scheme and whether these criteria include a requirement that services should be subject to tender.
Answer
As a public servicesconcession contract within the terms of European Regulation 1191/69, Bus RouteDevelopment Grant guidance states that, as projects should be identified inconjunction with the bus operator(s) whom it is intended will run them, theservices should not be tendered.
- Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 24 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) monthly and (b) annual cost is of the Bus Route Development Grant paid through Fife Council to Stagecoach for its number 78 service between Dunfermline and High Valleyfield; whether this service was put out to tender, and what the monthly ridership figures are for the most recent period for which information is available.
Answer
For the Dunfermlineto High Valleyfield service, FifeCouncil has been granted a maximum allocation in Bus Route Development Grantfunding of £301,000 over the three year life of the project. Within thatmaximum, the actual cost and phasing of payments will depend on the performanceof the service.
The Bus Route DevelopmentGrant guidance states that, as projects should be identified in conjunctionwith the bus operator(s) whom it is intended will run them, the services shouldnot be tendered.
We have no current plans topublish operator specific figures with regard to financial or passengerinformation. Such information is commercially in confidence and it would not bein the public interest for it to be disclosed.
