Chamber and committees

During the development of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), a number of documents were produced, including the Full Business Case and Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment which look at the expected impacts to business and others of this scheme.

Scotland’s DRS represents a significant, transformative, change in the way in which waste is handled across the country. These changes present opportunities for waste handling businesses to work with Circularity Scotland and their primary logistics contractor Biffa, to help support the scheme.

Any companies which wish to participate in Scotland’s DRS activities should contact the DRS enquiries team at Biffa and this will be discussed with Circularity Scotland.

Scottish Government is pleased to be supporting City of Edinburgh Council to purchase Ministry of Defence owned properties at Dreghorn, Edinburgh as part of our Affordable Housing Supply Programme. The Council has also indicated interest in exploring the purchase of Ministry of Defence properties at Craigiehall, Edinburgh as one of a number of sites they are exploring. Officials have had outline discussions with them on this- including attending an initial site visit. City of Edinburgh Council are currently considering the site in more detail. Scottish Government has put in place a £50m Ukraine Longer Term Resettlement Fund to bring additional properties into use to boost the supply of homes for those fleeing conflict in Ukraine and we have noted the Council’s interest in applying to this Fund, and/or the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, should they decide to pursue the site. As the strategic housing authority it is for the Council to enter into discussions with the Ministry of Defence on potential site purchases.

The research on Women and Girls’ safety on Public Transport Scotland makes 10 recommendations Transport Scotland will continue to work with stakeholders and operators to identify actions in the recommendations and work towards progressing those. As part of this work a Summit is being organised to bring together stakeholders and experts to discuss the recommendations and identify any specific policy actions for Transport Scotland, as well as any actions for operators, police authorities and local authorities.

A number of partner organisations are working to specifically challenging men’s behaviour through a number of education and training programmes. Transport Scotland continue to support other policy areas on the systemic issue of gender based violence. The outcomes of this research have been shared with colleagues in the Scottish Government Violence Against Women and Girls Team who are working to deliver the Government’s Equally Safe Strategy.

The procurement of HS2 trains and their operation are the responsibility of the UK Government, and therefore the information provided within this answer reflects the information the Scottish Government has received from the UK Government to date.

Despite there now being no firm plans by the UK Government to bring HS2 to Scotland it has been previously proposed that Glasgow Central will operate as the northern terminus of the HS2 network from day one of HS2 operation. Since HS2 trains will be fully compatible with the existing rail network there is no expectation by the Scottish Government that the station will require any alteration to accommodate them.

The UK Government’s consideration of yet another delay to the planned opening of HS2 is lamentable. They should be bringing forward plans for an earlier opening so that the benefits to Scotland and the rest of the UK may be realised sooner and the overall cost be reduced.

There are currently 3,758 electric vehicle charging devices which make up the public charging network in Scotland. There are no publicly available statistics on the number of private charging devices in Scotland, such as those in workplaces, fleet depots and at residential properties.

The latest statistics quoted above are taken from Department for Transport’s ‘Electric vehicle charging device statistics’ published in January 2023. The next statistical release is due to be published in April this year.

Carrying statistics for passengers, cars and commercial vehicles are recorded by CalMac on a route by route basis and not by vessel and I refer the Member to the answer to question S6W-15777 on 27 March 2023. 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

Kongsberg have an agreement in place with Cemre Marin Endustri for Fin Stabilisers, with the production facility based in Dunfermline. Fifty-eight companies (overseas or based in England) are also set to provide products and/or services for the new build vessels. Forty of these companies have signed agreements, with the remaining 18 companies obtaining signed agreements as the shipyard build programme progresses.

The following table provides the answer to:

1. age of each vessel was at the start of 2023

2. total length of service of each vessel has been with the CalMac fleet and any previous operators.

The information requested is already available in the public domain on CalMac’s website by following the link:

Annual Carrying Statistics | CalMac Ferries

MV Hebrides and MV Isle of Lewis have Changing Places toilets onboard. There are 22 Accessible Toilets between the major and small vessels however, on 9 of the small vessels there are no Accessible Toilet facilities.