Chamber and committees

Each contract specifies the vessels to be deployed and contains detailed provisions for their maintenance and operation.

The provisions of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) contract require the operator, CalMac Ferries Ltd, to use the fleet funded by the Scottish Government and owned by Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd. These vessels are designed and constructed for the specific challenges of the CHFS network. An exemption was secured from the European Commission from the general rule that the use of specified vessels would normally be considered discriminatory against potential bidders for a contract who wish to deploy their own vessels.

For other ferry service contracts awarded by the Scottish Ministers, bidders can choose to use vessels put at their disposal by the Scottish Government or to propose their own vessel solutions. In those cases, or in cases where the Scottish Government is not offering vessels for use, the requirements for vessels are set out in the service specification issued to bidders. These requirements form part of the minimum requirements that every bid must meet. Compliance with the terms of the specification is assessed by the tender evaluation panel which includes or takes advice from maritime technical experts.

Fuel consumption information, particularly at this level of detail, is commercially sensitive.

Argyll Ferries Ltd only commenced operation on 30 June 2011, therefore there were no agency staff costs for the financial year ended 31 March 2011.

The £1,470,000 number quoted in this question refers to the agency staff costs to Cowal Ferries Limited for the financial year to 31 March 2011. All Cowal Ferries Limited crew were provided by Caledonian MacBrayne Crewing (Guernsey) Ltd. Crewing costs are therefore accounted for as agency staff costs.

Argyll Ferries Limited employ their crew directly and the agency staff costs figure of £59,000, for the financial year up to 31 March 2012, relates to the costs of bringing in agency crew to cover periods of absence.

A voluntary severance package was made available to the employees of Cowal Ferries Ltd and employees of other companies in the David MacBrayne Group on a restricted basis. This allowed staff associated with the Cowal ferry service the opportunity to either take a redundancy package, or transfer to another position, where available, within the group.

Of the 35 employees who received the severance package, 12 were vessel based, 10 were pier side employees and 13 were office based staff. All of these employees were full time permanent apart from 1 member of the office staff who was part time permanent.

The Scottish Government will consider the consolidation of crofting legislation after it is satisfied that all the provisions of the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 are working as intended.

Fuel cost information, particularly at this level of detail, is commercially sensitive. However, the difference in the cost of fuel for the MV Finlaggan sailing between these two journeys will be slightly higher given the route distance between Kennacraig and Port Askaig is 25 nautical miles and the route distance between Kennacraig and Port Ellen is 30 nautical miles.

<>For (a) Port Askaig, CalMac pay Argyll and Bute Council the published rates for harbour dues as detailed on the Council's website: http://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/ports-and-harbours-vessels/ports-and-harbours-rates-vessels and for (b) Port Ellen harbour, CalMac pay an annual fee to Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) which covers harbour dues at all the CMAL owned harbours used by CalMac.

The Scottish Government wants to see a ticketing arrangement in place as soon as possible and are aware that discussions between Argyll Ferries and Western Ferries are on-going following their agreement in principle.

Both operators are working to find an early resolution and we are supporting that.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-12483 on 30 January 2013 which has now been amended to remove Loch Ard in Stirlingshire, the Plockton area, Ross and Cromarty, and Mudalach birch wood on Skye as areas in Scotland that are known to be populated by the narrow-headed ant. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The core population (over 80% of the UK total) of narrow-headed ant occurs within the forest complex of Abernethy-Glenmore-Rothiemurchus in Speyside.

The queens of narrow-headed ants have very poor dispersal capabilities and cannot cross patches of non-suitable habitat, therefore they probably are unable to adapt or disperse adequately in the face of rapid ecological change.

The distribution and population status of narrow-headed ants (Formica exsecta) in Scotland

Locality of F. exsecta	Current population size
Mar Lodge Estate	Two or three nests. Probably under - recorded in east Cairngorms.
Carrbridge, Speyside	More than 16 nests
Glenmore, Rothiemurchus, Speyside	110 to more than 130 nests, although many recorded are probably small ‘satellite’ nests.
Abernethy Forest, Speyside	More than 150 nests although many are probably small “satellite” nests.
Black Wood of Rannoch, Perthshire	Around six nests within a field at East Camghouran farm (possibly another six un-mapped nests nearby).
Plodda Falls, Glen Affric, Invernesshire	Possibly Extinct Unconfirmed record with no specimens. Not confirmed by recent surveys
Amat Forest, Easter Ross	Possibly Extinct Confirmed record with specimen. Not confirmed by recent surveys.

Source: Hughes, J. (2006). A review of wood ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Scotland.

Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No. 178 (ROAME No. F04AC319).

http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/publications/commissioned_reports/F04AC319.pdf

The average severance package paid to the 35 employees who accepted voluntary redundancy in connection with the new contract to run a passenger ferry service on the Gourock-Dunoon route was £40,005.