Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S4W-25766

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 10 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government who David MacBrayne Ltd's (DML) nominated directors on Solent Gateway Ltd are; how many (a) part- and (b) full-time DML staff work for Solent Gateway Ltd, and what information it has on whether they are registered for UK tax and national insurance payments.

Question reference: S4W-25765

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 10 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government on what date David MacBrayne Ltd formed the joint venture with GBA (Holdings) to establish Solent Gateway Ltd and when this was announced to the Parliament.

Solent Gateway Ltd was incorporated on 31 December 2014. This joint venture was not announced to the Scottish Parliament. However, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence, Mr Philip Dunne, announced on 3 March 2015 to the House of Commons that he had launched the process to grant a concession to manage, and exploit the commercial potential of, the Marchwood Sea Mounting Centre and that Solent Gateway Ltd has been selected as the preferred bidder. This will be a joint venture between David MacBrayne Ltd and GBA (Holdings) Ltd.

Question reference: S4W-25836

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 10 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many meetings officials and ministers have had with representatives of (a) Solent Gateway Limited, (b) GBA (Holdings) Ltd and (c) David MacBrayne Ltd regarding the UK Government’s invitation to tender for the Marchwood Sea Mounting Centre contract.

Senior representatives of David MacBrayne Ltd (DML) have informed and discussed their proposals regarding their joint venture with GBA (Holdings) – Solent Gateway Ltd with Transport Scotland officials and with Scottish Ministers. No meetings have been held between Scottish Ministers or officials, and representatives of either Solent Gateway Ltd or GBA (Holdings) Ltd regarding the invitation to tender for the Marchwood Sea Mounting Centre contract.

Question reference: S4W-25838

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 10 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether David MacBrayne Ltd will be entitled to (a) profit share and (b) dividend payments under the contract with the UK Government to manage and commercially exploit spare port capacity at Marchwood Sea Mounting Centre.

Question reference: S4W-25831

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 10 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what external consultants have been contracted by each member of the David MacBrayne Group since 2011; for which projects, and what the value of each contract was or is.

A number of contractors have been brought in to assist in the procurement of the wide area network service and associated work, and others are involved in the upgrade of CalMac’s ticketing and online booking system, which involves a significant IT input. This is short term expertise which does not exist in house and it is standard business practice to contract this in as required. These are highly complex projects with a good deal of cross team working due to the diverse nature of the work being undertaken.

The contract values are commercially confidential.

Question reference: S4W-25835

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 10 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the annual income for David MacBrayne Group of its role in managing and exploiting the commercial potential of Marchwood Sea Mounting Centre.

Question reference: S4W-25833

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 10 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what annual payments David MacBrayne Ltd will receive from the UK Government for its role as joint manager of the Marchwood Sea Mounting Centre.

Question reference: S4W-25839

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 01 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 10 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what external consultants Transport Scotland has contracted, and at what cost, to work on the invitation to tender for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract.

Question reference: S4W-25675

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 9 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when work will be completed on the new link road between the A96 and A9 south of Inverness.

Question reference: S4W-25807

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 4 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria it set to determine the (a) overall quality and (b) quality in terms of (i) timetabling, (ii) capacity, (iii) additional freight service, (iv) type of vessel and (v) passenger services of bids for NorthLink ferry services; what weighting it gave to each element, and whether details of the criteria were made available to perspective bidders.