Chamber and committees

Transport Scotland on behalf of Scottish Ministers has contingency arrangements in place for Operator of Last Resort which could be mobilised in the event a Franchise agreement is terminated or otherwise comes to an end and no further franchise agreement has been entered into, in line with the Scottish Ministers’ duty under Section 30 of the Railways Act 1993.

The PIN was issued in February 2021 to preserve the Scottish Government’s ability to award a temporary measures agreement from March 2022 should it be necessary at that stage to continue emergency measures type support. As the scale and pace of recovery from the impact of the pandemic remains uncertain, the need for such an award, and the duration of any award, is being kept under review.

The Emergency Measures Agreement, which temporarily varied the terms of the franchise agreement with Serco Caledonian Sleepers Ltd, will expire on 28 February 2022.

A prior information notice (a technical measure that stems from the relevant procurement regulation) was issued in February 2021 to preserve the Scottish Government’s ability to award a temporary measures agreement from March 2022 should it be necessary at that stage to continue emergency measures type support. As the scale and pace of recovery from the impact of the pandemic remains uncertain, the need for such an award, and the duration of any award, is being kept under review.

Any such analysis would depend on the written proposals submitted by Serco Caledonian Sleepers Ltd, in the event it elected to exercise the contractual rebasing option after 1 April 2022.

One of the benefits of the Single Building Assessment approach is that the outputs will be made available for multiple purposes. We will work out the best way to do this, in partnership with others, while taking necessary steps to protect private information and sensitive data.

We are working with owners and representatives to fund the Single Building Assessments in the pilot phase. All £97.1m received in consequentials will be spent on assessments and cladding remediation over the lifetime of the programme.

Our Single Building Assessment initial phase is ongoing with 25 buildings across Scotland. We do not expect any remediation will be required for the vast majority of high-rise or other buildings in Scotland.

No tenants or owner occupiers of high rise flats with high pressure laminate or aluminium composite materials are on the ministerial working group on building and fire safety. The Cladding Program stakeholder group does include an owner-occupier representative.

We do not expect the vast majority of buildings in Scotland to require remediation and the Single Building Assessment programme will give us the information to establish timescales for those that do.

Public Health Scotland has published guidance on distancing and infection control measures in health settings changing the 2 metre rule to 1 metre – this means more potential space for patients in waiting rooms where it is appropriate, while continuing to ensure everyone is kept safe.

Following this, NHS and Scottish Government guidance for general practices was published on 7 September. This is an important step in getting more in person appointments in primary care.

This guidance also makes clear that there is no longer a need to triage every patient, although they should continue to screen patients for Covid before seeing them face to face. It contains resources for practices to help improve their communication with patients as well as access arrangements.

The Scottish Government’s recently announced winter funding package will help increase NHS and social care capacity this winter. The new funding will support a range of measures to maximise capacity in our hospitals and primary care. Up to £28m of additional funding will underpin a range of measures to aid Dentistry and General Practice.