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-21847

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, how the Parliament will be made aware if any conflicts of interest are identified.

Question reference: S4W-21844

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-21652 by Keith Brown on 17 June 2014, who is responsible for checking “any profits above 7% of revenue”.

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-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-21660

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 whether the operator of the new Caledonian sleeper rail franchise will be allowed to sub-contract (a) drivers, (b) conductors, (c) cleaners, (d) maintenance crews, (e) station staff and (e) other staff.

Now that the Caledonian sleeper rail franchise contract has been signed, following the voluntary standstill period, the franchisee is in the early phases of their mobilisation. The franchisee is working with the existing franchisee (First ScotRail) to ensure that a series of staff briefings are undertaken as early as possible (some current sleeper staff are sub-contracted). There are also staff interdependencies with the ScotRail franchise procurement competition, which will not be known until that procurement is concluded.

Current staff pay and conditions are protected under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 and the Scottish Ministers have ensured that Caledonian sleeper staff shall benefit from a fully funded railway pension scheme.

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-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-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.

Question reference: S4W-21653

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 whether the operator of the new Caledonian sleeper rail franchise will be allowed to increase fares above the rate of inflation.

The Caledonian sleeper is operating in a particularly competitive market between Scotland and London competing with air, daytime rail (where low advance fares are being promoted) and overnight coach travel which is a driver for competitive fares, and the sleeper franchisee is obliged to hit patronage targets. Fares on the Caledonian sleeper are however generally unregulated and overnight ticket prices (fares) will be based on a dynamic pricing structure to adjust prices at quieter/busier times to ensure maximum patronage. The fares on the morning commuting service on the sleeper from highland communities to Inverness will continue to be regulated.

The new franchisee is aware of the Scottish Government’s policy of bearing down on rail fares and ensuring accessibility to the sleeper for all budgets.

We are already aware of ticket schemes and fares promotions the franchisee plans to put in place, and in addition they plan to use a dynamic pricing structure to adjust prices at quieter/busier times to ensure maximum patronage.