Chamber and committees

There are some distinct provisionsin the franchise agreement in respect of the former Strathclyde Passenger TransportExecutive area which differ from those which apply to the rest of Scotland.

Principal among these are provisionson the use of branding specified by the Scottish ministers, the timing of faresincreases, and fares setting.

Transport Scotland managesthe delivery of passenger rail services in Scotland under the franchise agreementand works to ensure that service quality and passenger satisfaction is driven upacross the whole of the area served by the ScotRail franchise.

The Executive and Transport Scotland arenot currently seeking to formalise an agreement with Strathclyde Partnership forTransport on this matter.

The Scottish Executive’s positionon this issue was summarised in the Auditor General’s report on the NorthLink ferryservices contract published on 22 December 2005. The Auditor General’s report alsoconsidered the current tendering process and noted that:

“NorthLink’s financial problemshave led the Executive to conclude that an appropriate balance has to be struckbetween the twin priorities of ensuring the continuity of services and transferringoperational risks on to the new operator. The proposed contract does not seek totransfer all such risks to the operator and recognises that costs can be higherand income lower than expected for reasons beyond the operator’s control. It willtherefore provide some protection to the new operator by allowing the Executiveto pay additional subsidy in certain circumstances. Should income fall or costsrise sufficiently in any one year, the operator will be required to bear the impactof not making its anticipated return from providing the service plus a further £750,000of losses before the Executive will consider paying additional subsidy. Similarto the NorthLink contract, the new contract will include financial penalties fornon-performance and the clawback of subsidy if excessive profits are made.”

The opportunity to express andinterest in tendering for the Northern Isles contract was advertised in 2004 and26 organisations expressed an interest in the process. The list did not includethe Royal Bank of Scotland. Of the 26, nine companies subsequently submitted a Pre-QualificationQuestionnaire. These were evaluated by a tendering team comprising Executive specialistsin procurement, finance and accountancy, transport policy and an external marinetechnical adviser, to assess bidders’ technical and professional ability and financialstanding. Caledonian MacBrayne expressed an interest and submitted a pre qualificationquestionnaire. Caledonian MacBrayne was assessed as meeting the required criteria,along with two other companies. On 19 July 2005,I announced that three companies, V Ships UK Ltd, Irish Continental Ferries plcand Caledonian MacBrayne Ltd had been invited to tender for the public service contractfor the Northern Isles Ferry Services currently operated by NorthLink.

I refer Mr Davidson to the Guidanceon Scottish Public Sector Procurement and Freedom Of Information, which sets outwhat tender information can and cannot be disclosed. The Guidance is available onthe Executive website at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/SPD/19468/FOIGuidanceDec2004.

Both bids were technically compliant.We can only disclose the value of the winning tender after the formal award of contractand we have not reached that point yet. We cannot give details on rankings or financialmodels or value of unsuccessful tenders at any stage.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-25464 on 11 May 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Rail services are funded uniformlyunder the ScotRail franchise agreement across the whole of Scotland, includingthe former Strathclyde Passenger Transport area.

The devolution of rail powerschanged the organisation and structure of rail in Scotland andplaced Scottish ministers in a central role. The transfer of powers from StrathclydePassenger Transport (SPT) to Scottish ministers ensures that the lines of accountabilityare clear and transparent and brings greater co-ordination and efficiency in theimplementation of rail strategy. Transport Scotland recognises the importanceof rail in an effective integrated transport system and will work with industrypartners to deliver improvements in rail services throughout Scotland.

I refer the member to thequestion S2W-24394 answered on 29 March 2006, which details the involvement thenew West of Scotland Regional Transport Partnership will have in rail.All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility forwhich can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Executive did notoffer any additional support to local government as a result of the recent stormsnor did we receive any requests for assistance.

The Executive supports localauthorities’ net revenue expenditure on road maintenance and winter maintenancethrough the core local government finance settlement. All local authorities receivetheir needs-based share of the road maintenance and winter maintenance Grant AidedExpenditure (GAE) allocations and it is up to each local authority to decide howbest to allocate these resources based on their local needs and priorities.

The roads maintenance GAE amountsto £158.7 million in the current financial year rising to £195.3 million next year.Similarly the winter maintenance GAE will increase from £52.8 million this yearto £64.9 million next year.