Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is contributing £9.52 million towards the £12 million Stornoway project and £17.82 million towards the £19.32 million Ullapool project.

The additional operational costs incurred by CalMac Ferries Ltd associated with the delay in the installation of suitable berthing facilities for the MV Loch Seaforth at Stornoway and Ullapool relate to the extension of the charter of the MV Clipper Ranger. The vessel is expected to be required until the end of May 2015. The additional charter costs for this extension are £1.4 million.

Given the varied nature, cause, and methods of reporting road closures, Transport Scotland does not hold all the information necessary to determine the number of road closures, their cause and duration, on the A83 between Arrochar and the junction with the A815 since 2007.

Road closures result from a wide variety of causes, including fallen trees, recovery of broken down vehicles, consequences of road traffic accidents, landslides, flooding, snow, ice, high winds, criminal incidents, vulnerable persons and utility emergencies. Closure duration is dependent on the circumstances of each incident and the closures associated with debris, slight or non-injury accidents are often relatively short in timescale. Importantly, given the varied nature of the closures, they are not always reported to the operating company or Traffic Scotland and when they are, the information is not to a consistent standard, which makes subsequent reporting uncertain.

Road closure information is held on a variety of different databases across Transport Scotland, Traffic Scotland, trunk road operating companies and Police Scotland, for a variety of different purposes. Detailed records are held for injury accidents and for landslides affecting the A83 in this region. Records are held on other closures that are reported to Traffic Scotland and the trunk road operating companies, but this data cannot be considered comprehensive for the reasons outlined above.

The Scottish Government spend on different categories of liquid fuels is shown in the following table. Prior to October 2013, spend on heating oils was not centrally collated. As a result spend for only part of the year 2013-14 is shown:

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring a safe, reliable, frequent, commuter ferry service between Dunoon town centre and the rail terminal at Gourock.

Over the term of the current contract with Argyll Ferries Limited (AFL), the Scottish Government has put a number of measures in place to mitigate against reliability concerns with the town centre to town centre passenger only service.

Dedicated replacement buses now run when both its ships are off for prolonged periods, using the Western Ferries (Clyde) Limited service.

AFL have ‘flipped’ their vessels so that the MV Argyll Flyer is now the principal vessel which meets the fast train connections at peak times from Gourock.

The MV Coruisk has also been used as an additional vessel, in passenger only mode at certain peak periods in the morning and afternoon during both winter 2013-14 and 2014-15. In addition the MV Coruisk is also on standby relief when both AFL vessels are unable to sail to improve resilience on the route.

All these measures ensure that the effects of weather disruption, to AFL services, to regular commuters are kept to a minimum.

The level of breakdown that the Scottish Government records for fuel is detailed in the following table.

The impact of any savings emerging from reduced fuel costs will be considered in the same way as any other savings and pressures that emerge across the public finances as part of our annual budget process and as part of individual public bodies and services' own management of their budgets.

The Scottish Government has no plans at present to adjust the rates of landfill tax. Landfill tax, alongside the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 and measures in the Zero Waste Plan, plays an important role in ensuring waste material is treated as high up the waste hierarchy as possible, and not disposed of to landfill.

The cost of fuel for contract year seven (October 2013 to September 2014) to deliver the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract, operated by CalMac Ferries Limited, was £21.7 million.

If the fuel price remains at the current level, then the cost of fuel for contract year eight (October 2014 to September 2015) would be around £17.1 million, representing a difference of £4.6 million or 21%.

This represents the total cost of fuel including delivery, plus lubricant oils, the price of which will remain relatively fixed. Fuel prices remain volatile, making future costs difficult to predict.

Substantial increases in the annual cost of fuel of up to £5 million (30%) since contract year one (October 2007 to September 2008) have largely been absorbed by the Scottish Government, in line with the contractual arrangements for the service, and not passed on to customers, despite the pressure on public spending during this period.

Using prices in June 2014 as a baseline and assuming prices and usage remain at those on 31 December 2014 until the end of 2015, the Scottish Government may save £1.1 million on marine oil, £6,000 on fuel used in heating, and £63,500 on a combination of motor vehicle fuels. However, due to the fact that fuel and oil prices are subject to change and the lack of clarity over UK tax and duty regimes, these figures are just an approximation. In addition to the above, officials can also claim for fuel used in carrying out their day to day business through the Scottish Government travel and subsistence system. However, the system does not record these numbers separately. Savings for future years using the same baselines would be the same as for 2015. Expenditure on fuel is not recorded by directorate.