Chamber and committees

Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) has undertaken a major redevelopment of Brodick harbour. No upgrades will be required to facilitate berthing of the new ferry.

A Ministerial Task Force for Ardrossan was established in February 2016 to ensure improvement of the operational effectiveness of the Ardrossan facility in supporting the lifeline ferry services and the new vessel on the Arran route.

A number of options for infrastructure improvements at Ardrossan Harbour are currently being considered by Transport Scotland, North Ayrshire Council, Peel Ports, CalMac and CMAL as they look collectively to improve resilience of the facility over the long-term.

The original vessel design has been updated with the additional provision of mooring winches.

In October 2015, Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) announced that Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd (FMEL) in Port Glasgow had been awarded the contracts worth £97 million to build two 100 metre ‘dual-fuel’ ferries; i.e. £48.5m per vessel.

In my letter of 9 November 2017 to the Convenor of the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee, I noted that FMEL has indicated that delivery of the first of these ferries, the MV Glen Sannox, is expected to be delayed from summer 2018 to winter 2018-19. The vessel will subsequently enter into service following trials and familiarisation by CalMac Ferries Ltd.

There have been some agreed design changes during the build process. Additional costs agreed between CMAL and FMEL relate to enhanced mooring winching arrangements at £800k per vessel.

The figures are defined as follows:

• Niche Occurrences (all crimes/offences) recorded on D Division, committed between 1 Dec and 2 Jan for each year

• Counts occurrences either flagged as Alcohol-related and/or alcohol-specific offences

• Counts only occurrences where premises are described as “On-Train”

The Scottish Government is strongly committed to encouraging increased use of public transport. That is why we invest over £1billion a year in public transport. It is a matter for individual employers whether they levy a charge on employees to park at work. In our draft Climate Change Plan we propose that, where there are charges to park at workplaces, that these should be used to incentivise ULEVs.

In 2010, the Scottish Government legislated to reduce the maximum class size in Primary 1 to 25, its lowest ever level. Since then the number of P1 pupils in a class size of 26 or more has decreased by 90% from 6,896 in 2010 to 631 in 2017.

The Scottish Government is taking a range of actions to help increase the number teachers, including committing £88 million this year to make sure every school has access to the right number of teachers with the right skills, investing over £1 million through the Scottish Attainment Challenge to support universities in developing new innovative routes into teaching, and launching the second phase of our “Teaching Makes People” recruitment campaign. This action has halted a period of steady decline in teacher recruitment, resulting in almost 800 more teachers than there were two years ago.

The information requested is not held centrally. The data the Scottish Government receives from Police Scotland is a general count of the number of crimes and offences recorded by the police, split by local authority, and the number cleared up by the police. We don’t receive further details on the specific dates of these crimes and offences. This means we are unable to identify how many drink driving offences were recorded over the festive period in 2015-16 and 2016-17.

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a review of the water and sewerage charges exemption scheme. The results, including any proposed changes, will be published in early 2018.

The Scottish Government recognises the concerns of the local community following the tragic death of Logan Carrie in 2015 on the A92 north of Glenrothes and is committed to improving crossing provision on the route. We have invested over £35.1 million on the A92 since 2007 to ensure it continues to operate safely and efficiently. We have also been evaluating potential measures, which have highlighted a number of issues and we are considering alternatives which may be more appropriate for this location.

We have recently constructed a new footpath alongside part of the A92 and reduced the speed limit in this area.

As previously discussed with community representatives, we will meet them again early in the new year to discuss our progress on the A92 around Glenrothes and Freuchie.

The Scottish Government has given clear assurances in Parliament that the terms and conditions, pay and pensions of British Transport Police officers and staff will be the same as they are currently, or that an equivalent level of benefit will be provided to ensure transfer takes place on a no-detriment basis.

The benefits of integration were identified in the Policy Memorandum to the Railway Policing (Scotland) Bill:

 - ensuring that railway policing in Scotland is accountable, through the Chief Constable and the SPA, to the people of Scotland;

- enhancing railway policing in Scotland through direct access to the specialist resources of Police Scotland;

- future-proofing the infrastructure policing model in Scotland against changes that may arise from the review of infrastructure policing in England and Wales.

Alongside the Policy Memorandum, the Scottish Government published a report compiled by an independent research company that summarised the views of respondents to the Scottish Government consultation, including benefits and disbenefits. The Financial Memorandum set out projected costs associated with the Bill.

The Joint Programme Board which is overseeing the programme has continued to develop its understanding of benefits, risks and costs as more detailed work on integration has progressed.