Chamber and committees

No decision has yet been taken with regard to Scottish Government funding to support student mental health services within colleges and universities beyond the end of the current Academic Year.

We have met our manifesto commitment to provide more than 80 additional counsellors in Further and Higher Education over four years.

In this, the final Academic Year of the commitment, despite an extremely challenging fiscal environment, we have confirmed a further £2 million to the end of this financial year and are committed to provide further funding for the remainder of this Academic Year, which falls into the Government’s next financial year. Details of this will be confirmed in due course, as part of the budget setting exercise for 2023-24.

We are producing an evidence and evaluation-informed Student Mental Health Plan. The Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Working Group, which I chair, is driving this work forward. The Plan will provide a framework for mental health services in colleges and universities, recognising the existing eco-systems of services available for students, and will be linked to the wider Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W- 15244 on 1 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

Transport Scotland officials have been in discussions with UK Government officials regarding regulatory and legislative requirements for a range of future vessel technologies and fuels, including hydrogen. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is responsible for shipping regulations in UK waters, to ensure that vessels are meeting UK and international safety rules, promoting and enforcing compliance with maritime regulations and best practice, and making sure that legislation is proportionate.

The objective of the medium-term solution is to provide a safe, proportionate and more resilient diversion route for use if the A83 is closed. The improvements to the Old Military Road will improve the resilience of the diversion route, reduce journey times, are the quickest to implement, of relatively lower cost and would have the least impacts overall across the range of criteria assessed.

These improvements include proposals to extend the length of single carriageway (i.e. two way lane road), subject to obtaining necessary statutory planning approvals. However, a length of the single lane Old Military Road will remain unchanged at the western end, including the hairpin bends. This was communicated when the medium term solution announcement was published on the Transport Scotland website on 23 December 2022.

There have been no recent discussions with the UK Government on these specific issues, which are matters for the operators to consider. However, I have been in correspondence with the UK Government regarding wider seafarer employment conditions, including writing on numerous occasions seeking a 4 nations ministerial meeting to discuss the implications of the decision by P&O Ferries to sack almost 800 crew. The UK Government did not respond to these proposals, which was disappointing noting where legislative competence rests.

Shipping safety and seafarer welfare and employment conditions are matters reserved to the UK Government. The Maritime Labour Convention came into force in the UK on 7 August 2014. It sets out the minimum working and living rights for seafarers, with the onus on operators. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency are responsible for auditing vessels to ensure compliance.

The Scottish Government expects the highest shipping safety and crew welfare and employment conditions for vessels and personnel accessing Scotland’s ports and coastal areas.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places the statutory responsibility for local roads, including the provision of parking spaces with local road authorities. The number of parking spaces required in each area is therefore determined by the relevant local authority.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of parking spaces in each local authority.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) have never chartered the MV Arrow, which is owned by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. Any charter has been between the publicly funded ferry operator and the owner of the vessel.

The following table details, from January 2012, when either CalMac Ferries Ltd or Serco NorthLink Ferries have chartered the MV Arrow.

The Scottish Government welcomes the City of Edinburgh Council’s commitment to cut car kilometres by 30% by 2030, and will work with all local authorities to support equitable measures which discourage car use to accompany greater investment in public transport and active travel for a fairer and greener transport system. As outlined in our route map to achieving a 20% reduction in car kilometres by 2030, jointly developed with COSLA, the scale of the climate challenge means that we need to take forward a broad combination of interventions including infrastructure, incentives and regulatory actions, taking into account the needs of people on low incomes to help ensure a just transition to net-zero.

In 2019, the £500 million investment in bus included reallocation of roadspace on the Glasgow motorway network. The design development and business case work to support infrastructure to improve bus journey time reliability on the M8 through Glasgow and also on the M77 and M80, is currently moving towards completion.

Until this work is completed it is not possible to confirm the exact level of investment that will be required.

The outcomes of the transport appraisal that supported second Strategic Transport Projects Review(STPR2), was published on the 8 December 2022 on the Transport Scotland website.

The appraisal was conducted in several phases which involved ongoing stakeholder engagement. The eleven regional and national Case for Change Reports were published in February 2021 and further details on these can be found here: STPR2 strategic approach | Transport Scotland .

Appendix D and E of the National Case for Change Report Initial appraisal: Case for Change - National - STPR2 | Transport Scotland , respectively detail those options sifted “in” and “out” for further consideration at next appraisal stage.

The outcomes of this final detailed appraisal, including details of the approach followed to appraise options, are contained in the published Final technical report - December 2022 - STPR2 | Transport Scotland .

Specific details on the results of the appraisal related to Recommendation 41 – Potential Fixed Links across the Sounds of Barra, Harris and between Mull and the Mainland can be found here: recommendation-41-potential-sound-of-harris-sound-of-barra-fixed-link-and-fixed-link-between-mull-and-scottish-mainland.pdf (transport.gov.scot)