Chamber and committees

ScotRail publishes a Disabled Persons Protection Policy (DPPP) as a condition of its operating licence. The DPPP sets out in detail the wide range of services available to assist disabled passengers to use ScotRail services. This includes a telephone assistance and booking service that is of particular benefit for blind or visually impaired passengers.

To ensure the safest and most comfortable travel experience for a blind passenger, ScotRail provides a dedicated Passenger Assist service. Any disabled passenger who wants to travel independently but who requires help can book assistance in advance of travel and they will be met at the station by staff and escorted to their seat on the train. If requested, a blind passenger will then be assisted off the train and taken to the station entrance or guided to any companion they may be meeting at the destination station.

Station staff will aim to assist any passenger who asks for help. However, to ensure a more reliable level of service, passengers are asked to book assistance a minimum of four hours in advance of travel if possible. This may be of particular benefit for blind passengers travelling alone as it gives staff adequate time to prepare and to assist the blind passenger to their train.

Abellio ScotRail has made a commitment to reduce the period of advance notice required to three hours in the next year and aims to reduce this to one hour over the longer term. This should increase the flexibility and choice for passengers who may need assistance.

All Abellio ScotRail trains must comply with the European rail vehicle accessibility standards (the TSI PRM) by 1 January 2020.

The TSI PRM is a wide range of standards that specifies how all aspects of a train should be designed and built to facilitate the safe and comfortable carriage of passengers with reduced mobility. The TSI PRM requires trains to provide braille signage on entrance and toilet door buttons.

Currently 160 (55.5%) of ScotRail’s fleet of 288 trains already fully complies with the TSI PRM, which includes the provision of braille signage on buttons. It is likely most of the 44.5% of the fleet that does not fully comply with the TSI PRM will have braille signage on buttons, but do not comply with the TSI PRM on other areas.

ScotRail has made a commitment to refurbish the remainder of the fleet that will be retained beyond 2020 to the TSI PRM standard by early 2019. This will ensure the entire fleet is fitted with braille signage where appropriate.

All 104 new trains which are planned to be introduced by the end of 2018 into its fleet by ScotRail will be TSI PRM compliant.

ScotRail are currently refining a programme of refurbishment to older rolling stock, and at this stage cannot specify how many trains do not currently have braille signage on buttons and what it will cost to retro-fit these as part of wider refurbishment. However, it is likely to be a relatively small proportion of older trains that may not have braille signage.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-25291 on 1 May 2015. 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 has made very clear its commitment to achieving social justice by building a fairer Scotland and tackling inequalities; including in the Programme for Government, published 26 November 2014. As shown within the Programme for Government, and as I set out in my interview with The National newspaper, the efforts to create a more socially just Scotland are dependent on a range of interlinked policies that are discussed regularly at Cabinet and reflect the importance of the issue to the Scottish Government.

The responses to the consultation on marine protected area management are currently being considered by Marine Scotland. We will publish an analysis of the responses in May 2015 together with details of the proposed management measures for each of the sites.

The Highlands and Islands Airports Limited management team have kept the Scottish Government informed of the discussions it has had with the Prospect Union in relation to the planned industrial action. They have also informed us of the robust contingency arrangements that they have put in place to minimise the impact of the industrial action on services.

The Scottish Parliament last debated the issue of snaring in 2011, and concluded that snaring should be allowed to continue subject to further changes to the legislation that aims to improve the animal welfare aspects of this pest control method.

The legislative changes to improve animal welfare and to make snaring practitioners more accountable included requirements that all snaring operators must have successfully completed a training course and obtained their unique identification number from their local police force. All set snares must now be fitted with an identification tag containing the snaring operator’s identification number, which will identify the person who set the snare and the target species.

The Scottish Government intends to carry out a review of snaring in 2016 and will report the findings of the review to the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Government notes the change of policy in relation to common land by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, following a legal challenge. However, the legal basis regarding common land in England is different from that applying to common grazings in Scotland.

We recognise this is a complex issue, and although we do not currently envisage any implications for the Scottish Government’s approach to common grazings, we will discuss the issue with crofting and farming stakeholder organisations in the coming weeks, as well as carefully monitoring the situation in England, to consider what, if any, impact the English decision may have for common grazings in Scotland.

We are committed to supporting primary science as laid out in the Programme for Government, this includes ensuring the delivery of best value across Scotland. We are working with Education Scotland to improve the learning and teaching of science in primary schools in a number of ways, Education Scotland has dedicated staff supporting this area. A range of local and national face-to-face events have taken place. New content has been published to a dedicated STEM central website and the monthly STEM e bulletin now has 2400 subscribers. Other elements of the Glow network have been used to deliver online science learning events to schools across the country and a primary science teachers’ collaborative network has also been established.

In addition, the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre (SSERC), with support from the Scottish Government, has established a successful primary science cluster programme which has now trained primary science mentors in 16 local authorities. We are continuing to support SSERC to consolidate the progress that has been made and to expand it out to other local authority areas. The science space on Glow is growing. Education Scotland officials are in discussion with the company who provide the 'Tig-Tag' resource to explore ways in which schools and local authorities who have been using this service can continue to do so when the current contract ends in June 2015.

The Scottish Government received letters from Philip Dunne MP relating to the Ministry of Defence proposal to develop the British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre. The first was on 19 August 2013, followed by 25 September 2013, 3 November 2014 and 4 March 2015. The letter of the 19 August 2013 was responded to by the then Deputy First Minister for Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, requesting that jobs be safeguarded and consultation with local stakeholders be undertaken.