Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to providing revenue funding to the Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) and revenue budget allocation was provided in the 2024-25 Scottish Budget. Budget allocations are subject to Scottish Government in-year spend controls and assurance processes, and allocations will be communicated to all RTPs directly in the coming months.

The Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) general capital support budget allocation is funded through the Local Government Finance settlement. A decision was taken to pause funding for 2024-25, given the current financial constraints, with a view to keeping under review in future years. Transport Scotland and SPT are in dialogue about the impact of this decision and maintaining their forward investment programme. These discussions will also explore the opportunity to utilise reserves currently held by SPT, and the impact of any use of reserve balances or re-phasing of capital funding, on SPT's forward maintenance and investment programmes.

The Scottish Government draft budget for 2024-25 allocates £0.5 million in revenue funding to Clyde Gateway. There is currently no capital budget specifically allocated to Clyde Gateway. Ministers have, however, yet to determine how the remaining budget within the portfolio will be prioritised.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-24110 on‎ 18 January 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-24110 on 18 January 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

CalMac are continuing to develop the LNG workstream for Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa, including through discussions with Wartsila the engine manufacturer. The methane slip in service would be influenced by the route the ship is to operate on and the amount of venting produced by the number of times changing over fuel source or when slowing down suddenly for navigational purposes. For these reasons the rate of methane slip will not be fully known until the ships are deployed and fully operational.

The CICV Survey provides an insight in to the poor payment practices prevalent in the construction industry. The information contained therein will be helpful in the ongoing work of the Construction Accord Transformation Action working groups which are a collaboration between industry and government.

Scottish Government expects payments at all levels in a public contract supply chain to be made within the terms and conditions of the relevant contract or subcontract. Those agreements should comply with applicable legislation, be fair to both parties and be fairly administered. For financial year 2022-23, the core Scottish Government made 98.0% of payments within 10 days (2021-22: 97.7%) and 99.4% (2021-22: 99.2%) of all payments within the terms of its contractual 30 day payment policy.

Scottish Government’s procurement policy and procedures for public bodies on contract payments are set out in SPPN 2/2022. Bidders who are unable to assure the effectiveness and reliability of their supply chain payment processes may not be awarded a public contract. The awarding body should monitor the winning bidder’s actual payment performance and there is an escalation pathway for sub-contractors if their payment is delayed.

The Construction Accord’s Transformation Board have a Procurement and Supply Chain Working Group - on which CICV have representation - who will be looking into the issue of prompt payment throughout the supply chain. The CICV prompt payment survey results will be of assistance in this work.

Information on public sector support available to businesses in Scotland can be found on FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) frequently refer businesses to this resource to identify the funding and training that is available to them. SDS also offer a range of services to support businesses including their Employer Hub.

I receive regular performance delivery updates on the three Policy Prospectus missions of equality, opportunity and community. I also engage regularly with Cabinet Secretaries to support strong collaboration across portfolios and budgets and enable effective delivery of Mandate Letter commitments. These arrangements are routinely reviewed and improved where appropriate.

As the Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) was delivered by Keep Scotland Beautiful on behalf of the Scottish Government, we do not hold the grant offer letter that details the specific outputs and outcomes for the Al-Mahdi Foundation’s 2018-2020 project.

However to be eligible all projects had to meet all four of the CCF’s key criteria; specific outputs and outcomes were designed around these:

• Community- Your community must be at the heart of the decision-making process of the project. Community demand for the project must be clearly demonstrated and projects must be designed and delivered by communities. Applicants should show how they will work in partnership with other local organisations that are engaged in similar or related work.
• Improved Climate Literacy - The project must deliver increased awareness and understanding of climate change and enable the community to make informed choices to reduce its impact on climate change.
• Carbon (CO2e) Reduction - The project must lead to a measurable reduction in local carbon emissions through the activities it delivers.
• Sustainable Legacy - The project must deliver a low carbon legacy, with outcomes and/or behaviours that continue after the project is completed.

Transport Scotland remains in positive dialogue with Ambassador Living (the developer for Forthview Housing Development) to reach an agreement on the use of Ferrymuir Gait as an access. This is following a legal process in order to finalise matters, which we hope to conclude in Spring 2024.