Chamber and committees

The white paper is consistent with and informed by legal advice the Government has received. It is the long-standing practice of the Scottish and UK Governments, as is recognised in their respective Ministerial Codes, not to disclose the fact or content of advice from the Law Officers other than in the most exceptional circumstances.

The contract provides an overall regime of performance measures, with deductions to be applied, for failure to meet the performance measures. Performance measures cover reliability, punctuality, compliance and reporting.

During a period of scheduled unavailability, the contract permits departure from the contracted timetable, provided arrangements for delivery of the service are made which meet anticipated demand. A revised timetable has been agreed and should Serco NorthLink Ferries fail to deliver this the normal performance deductions as set out in the contract will apply.

No. Pentland Ferries will gain commercial benefit from the additional traffic carried during this period.

The MV Helliar is able to carry all expected freight vehicles and up to 12 passengers. Serco NorthLink Ferries held constructive dialogue with Pentland Ferries to ensure that ferry connectivity was maintained during this period of scheduled unavailability. Pentland Ferries has confirmed to Serco NorthLink Ferries that they are able to accommodate the overall travel demand across the Pentland Firth during this period. Serco NorthLink Ferries are providing courtesy buses between Scrabster and Gills Bay and Stromness and St Margaret’s Hope to minimise any inconvenience to passengers. It is anticipated that the effective liaison between both operators will continue to ensure effective connections to and from Orkney.

The replacement service that will be provided in January 2014, is compliant with the terms of the public service contract signed between Scottish Ministers and Serco Limited.

The contract requires the operator to provide a suitable replacement vessel to undertake the service between Scrabster and Stromness during periods of Scheduled Unavailability. On this occasion, the operator has fully demonstrated that, although they have sought to charter a suitable Ro-pax vessel, using international searches through shipbrokers, the scarcity of such charter tonnage means that the operator now intends to utilise the MV Helliar as the replacement vessel to provide all the freight services and some of the passenger services. This is compliant with the contract and contingency arrangements for such periods of scheduled unavailability.

The following table shows for each local authority the number of primary 1, 2 and 3 classes that had more than one teacher as at September 2012. Composite classes with one or more pupils in primary 1, 2 or 3 and more than one teacher are shown separately:

This information is not held centrally. I have asked the Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Funding Council to respond directly to the member.

This information is not held centrally. I have asked the interim chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council to respond directly to the member.

This information is not held centrally. I have asked the interim chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council to respond directly to the member.

The competent authorities under the Environmental Liability (Scotland) Regulations 2009 are SEPA, Scottish Natural Heritage and Marine Scotland.

SEPA has not to date received any notifications of “environmental damage” (as defined in the Regulations) from operators. SEPA has received two requests for action and review from interested persons. Both of these cases were found to be not plausible in accordance with regulation 14. SEPA has reported one case of “environmental damage” (land damage) to the European Commission. This involved the spillage of a large volume of fuel to ground following a collision between two road tankers. In respect of this incident, SEPA worked with the operator and the insurers to develop and implement a remedial strategy for the site.

On a further 15 occasions, SEPA has itself considered whether it had reasonable grounds to believe that environmental damage had occurred. SEPA did not find reasonable grounds to believe that environmental damage had occurred in any of these cases. This was either because the activity that caused the pollution did not fall within the scope of the Regulations or because the pollution did not meet the thresholds for environmental damage. SEPA is currently investigating one further case which involves the release of a large volume of fuel.

SNH issued notices of imminent threat of environmental damage to multiple operators in one case. The operators took action to prevent damage reaching the threshold of actual environmental damage. SEPA also took enforcement action (under other legislation) which led to two operators being prosecuted. Any other cases that have been identified as meeting, or threatening to meet, the threshold of environmental damage have been found to be exempt from the scope of the regulations.

Marine Scotland have not dealt with any cases.

As an employer the Scottish Government introduced direct entrant Modern Apprenticeship’s from 1 April 2011. These are in our entry level grade of A3. During the financial years 2011-12 and 2012-13 the Scottish Government’s Directorates delivered the following Modern Apprenticeship employment opportunities: