Chamber and committees

There has been no transfer of budget form the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme to any other budget.

The Scottish Government is working with the fishing industry to implement the landing obligation in the most flexible way and has always said it will work with other EU member states to resolve the difficult issues which we understand fishermen alone cannot fix.

Our Scottish Discards Steering Group, which includes representatives from the fishing industry, non-governmental organisations and active fishermen, meets on 17 March 2016 and will discuss a number of matters, including the proposed extension of the landing obligation in 2017 plus the aims of the international choke species workshop to be held in Edinburgh on 14-15 April 2016 where we hope there will be clarity on what the real biological choke issues are and what the options are for addressing them. Member states and advisory council representatives have been invited to attend and contribute to the choke species workshop.

Scottish Government officials record meetings in line with civil service custom and practice, and to comply with the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011.

The information used to update the Digital Scotland website is provided by BT Openreach project teams working on the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme. This information is validated centrally within Openreach before being passed to the Scottish Government where it is validated and assured against contractual address data. It includes weekly updates on newly enabled exchanges and quarterly updates for forecast roll-out plans.

Funding allocations from the phase 2 budget have not yet been confirmed. We are working closely with key stakeholders, including Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Community Broadband Scotland and local government partners, on the development of a procurement and delivery strategy for phase 2. We expect to be able to announce details of this later in 2016, once state aid issues have been resolved and an intervention area has been finalised.

A procurement strategy for phase 2 has not yet been finalised. It is, therefore, too early to determine whether the procurement process will be structured in a way that will allow community broadband groups to tender for projects specific to their area.

Community-led broadband projects will have a role to play in delivering 100% broadband coverage across Scotland. The Scottish Government has committed £16.5 million to Community Broadband Scotland (CBS), which is providing tailored support and funding to communities to enable them to develop sustainable projects. In a number of cases, this has involved the formation of community companies to deliver broadband services. We would encourage any community broadband group interested in this delivery route to make contact with CBS in the first instance.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has the departmental lead within the UK Government for digital connectivity, and the Scottish Government is engaged with DCMS on a number of relevant issues, including mobile coverage. Commercial rollout and existing UK Government policy and regulation is expected to deliver indoor 4G coverage to 95% of premises in Scotland by the end 2017.

To address the coverage gaps that will remain, the Scottish Government is engaging with all UK mobile operators. Also, as confirmed in the answer to question S4W-27311 on 17 September 2015, the Scottish Government is in discussion with the Home Office about the role of the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP). ESMCP’s core aim is to deliver an appropriate communications network to support the vital work of the emergency services when their existing airwave provision comes to an end. However, without prejudice to that core aim and within the limits of state aid and procurement law, on-going discussions seek to enable the programme to capitalise on opportunities for its new 4G emergency services network to contribute collateral benefit in terms of enhanced coverage more generally.

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 Scottish Government is supporting the UK Government’s efforts to secure a new UK-wide state aid scheme for broadband investment. The UK Government published a market engagement document in January 2016 that outlines the approach that has been discussed with the European Commission. This will form the basis of the UK’s notification document. A decision is expected in the coming months.

ScotRail are obliged under the terms of the franchise agreement to utilise rolling stock to meet passenger demand. Passenger counts on every service are carried out twice annually, usually in advance of timetable changes.

ScotRail provides Transport Scotland with advice regarding the available versus utilised capacity on all Edinburgh to Glasgow services.

ScotRail provides Transport Scotland with advice on a four weekly basis on the extent of any under-provision of capacity on Edinburgh to Glasgow services.

Some instances of overcrowding on the Glasgow to Edinburgh route were recorded during the 2014-15 period. These can largely be attributed to significant events such as the closure of Winchburgh tunnel, the Ryder Cup, the Commonwealth Games and the recent closure of the Forth Road Bridge.

Currently the annual-average for the extent of overall under-provision is 1% meaning that 99% of planned seats were actually available. We have no specific concerns that capacity performance will deteriorate further, and will continue to work with ScotRail to further improve performance.