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: S5W-01064

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the ScotRail (a) disabled people’s protection policy and (b) operating licence obligations, and whether it considers that driver-only operated services are compliant with them.

Disabled access policy has not been devolved to Scottish Ministers and remains an issue that is reserved to the UK Government.

a) The responsibility for assessing Abellio ScotRail Ltd.’s Disabled People’s Protection Policy (DPPP) rests with the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). The ORR last reviewed Abellio ScotRail Ltd.’s DPPP on 18 May 2016 and published confirmation that it continued to be in compliance with their obligations.

b) Abellio ScotRail Ltd hold a current operating licence on the basis that the ORR continue to be content that that the conditions of their operating licence are being met.

The Scottish Government therefore considers that all services operated by Abellio ScotRail Ltd are compliant with their DPPP and licence obligations.

Question reference: S5W-01067

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government who is paying for the ScotRail class 385 passenger trains.

Question reference: S5W-01073

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions its officials have had with the (a) UK Government, (b) train operating companies, (c) Rail Safety and Standards Board and (d) Rail Delivery Group regarding (i) driver-only operated and (ii) driver-control operated passenger trains on ScotRail services.

Question reference: S5W-01063

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 19 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding ScotRail using driver-only operated services and whether this complies with the operator's public equality duty required under the Equality Act 2010.

Question reference: S5W-00895

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has asked for the class 385 trains on order for ScotRail to be configured to not allow the guard to have responsibility for operating the doors.

Question reference: S5W-01077

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have indicated in advance since April 2015 that they required assistance to use ScotRail services; how many received this assistance, and what information it has regarding how many times this was provided by (a) station or (b) on-board staff.

Question reference: S5W-01087

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much subsidy Abellio receives annually under the ScotRail franchise agreement, and how much it expects the company to pay in premium payments.

Question reference: S5W-01080

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what proportion of ScotRail services have run without a second member of on-board staff in each month since April 2015.

During the last year of SQUIRE audits (from June 2015) the following results were returned.

		Trains audited	Fails recorded	%
2015-16	Period 3	186	2	1.075
2015-16	Period 4	187	1	0.535
2015-16	Period 5	187	0	0.000
2015-16	Period 6	178	0	0.000
2015-16	Period 7	185	1	0.541
2015-16	Period 8	180	4	2.222
2015-16	Period 9	179	5	2.793
2015-16	Period 10	183	3	1.639
2015-16	Period 11	192	0	0.000
2015-16	Period 12	187	3	1.604
2015-16	Period 13	177	0	0.000
2016-17	Period 1	191	2	1.047
2016-17	Period 2	193	0	0.000
2016-17	Period 3	191	3	1.571

Question reference: S5W-01078

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how ScotRail ensures that timetabled passenger services run with a second member of on-board staff, and what penalties can be imposed if a service does not have this.

ScotRail has a franchise commitment to ‘use all reasonable endeavours to maintain a minimum staffing level for every train service of two members of staff’.

Transport Scotland through the service quality incentive regime, inspect approximately 180 services per four weekly period. Two aspects are audited for on train staff.

One aspect covers train staff and customer care on the trains. This includes ‘general provision of customer care duties including provision of information to passengers and helping hand assistance’ and also ‘taking appropriate measures to deal with unruly behaviour by any passengers’.

The minimum threshold level for this schedule is 90%, and if exceeded the maximum financial penalty for this schedule is £10,800.

The other is specifically for ticket inspections on trains. Where for ‘each train there shall be a person whose duties shall include revenue protection comprising inspection of tickets, issuing of tickets to persons not in possession of a valid tickets and collection of revenue’.

The minimum threshold level for this schedule is 95%, and if reached the maximum financial penalty for this schedule is £50,000.

Question reference: S5W-01089

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the projected profit that Abellio expects to make (a) each year and (b) in total from the ScotRail franchise agreement, and whether a (i) minimum and (ii) maximum level has been set under the terms of the agreement.

Due to commercial confidentiality these values cannot be currently disclosed. Earnings before income tax information is disclosed within the published ScotRail Annual Report and Accounts at Companies House. The financial year 2015-16 latest lodging date is 30 September 2016.

Schedule 8.1 (Section 3) of the franchise agreement details the Revenue Share Adjustment, which limits the proportion of annual revenue above target ScotRail can retain to no more than 50%. A redacted copy of the franchise agreement can be found on Transport Scotland’s website:

http://www.transport.gov.scot/rail/scotrail-franchise/public-register