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-21845

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Friday, 20 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 11 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-21657 by Keith Brown on 17 June 2014, what procurements the term "both procurements" refers to.

Question reference: S4W-21828

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 11 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether the new Caledonian sleeper franchise will lead to a reduction in the Inverness train depot's daytime workload.

The future of the ScotRail maintenance depot in Inverness is secure. The Scottish Government has specified that the new ScotRail franchisee must maintain the depot at Inverness. This is appropriate because the majority of work conducted at the depot is for ScotRail day train services. The depot will continue to conduct daily servicing of the Inverness portion of the Sleeper, and also work for the East Coast franchisee.

Question reference: S4O-03406

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it provides to local authorities for the education of Gypsy/Travellers.

Question reference: S4W-21651

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much private sector investment will be sought for the new Caledonian sleeper rail franchise.

Question reference: S4W-21655

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what contingencies will be put in place to ensure that the new Caledonian sleeper rail franchise will continue for the full duration of its contract.

Question reference: S4W-21661

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the attitude of the operators of the new Caledonian sleeper rail franchise toward how industrial relations on the service should be managed.

Question reference: S4W-21652

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much private profit is expected to arise from the new Caledonian sleeper rail franchise.

Question reference: S4W-21656

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, if the operator of the new Caledonian sleeper rail franchise became unable to fulfil the terms of its contract, who would be the operator of last resort.

Question reference: S4W-21654

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what earliest opportunity it will have to terminate the new Caledonian sleeper rail franchise.

Question reference: S4W-21657

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Independent
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 17 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what consultants it hired for advice about the new Caledonian sleeper rail franchise; how much each was paid; whether they were asked to declare any possible conflicts of interest and, if so, what declarations were made.

The requirement for a procurement competition for rail franchising in Scotland occurs once every 7-10 years, and it is not therefore economically advantageous to continually employ, train and retain the specialist staff required in order to provide advice on undertaking such procurement competitions. Scottish Ministers have always stressed the importance of having an expert and appropriately resourced team to undertake both franchise procurements in order to do so competently and maximise the benefits of the public sector franchise investment, and also to mitigate against potential procurement challenge. The Caledonian sleeper franchise contract award is the first one to be completed since the West Coast Main Line debacle (reported to have cost around £40 million).

A fair and open competition was undertaken to appoint advisors to work on both procurements and the external advisors appointed for advice as part of the Caledonian sleeper franchise procurement were: technical advisors – Atkins, financial advisors – Ernst & Young and the legal advisors – DWF. The advisors work on both procurements and in the case of the legal advisors were sourced through the Scottish Government framework for external legal services. The costs of the procurement have not yet been finalised as the franchise contract has only very recently been signed.

The members of the advisor teams and Transport Scotland officials working on the procurement are routinely asked to check and declare if there are any conflicts of interest. To date no conflicts have been identified.