Chamber and committees

We have been working to address supply chain issues in the construction industry since the launch of our Construction Recovery Plan in October last year, working with industry and the UK Government to fully understand the current supply chain issues, which we recognise are due to a number of factors including the coronavirus pandemic and the impact of EU Exit.

I have also established a working group to consider immediate supply issues in more detail and I meet with the group on a weekly basis in order to work with Scottish manufacturers to increase output to meet the shortage challenges. I am meeting suppliers to discuss the opportunities available for increasing production, and sourcing more supplies from Scottish manufacturers.

The Scottish Government will continue to work hard to address the problems and blockages faced by companies, where it is in our power to do so.

A business decision has been taken by the owners of the MV Pentalina to withdraw the availability of the vessel for charter. Neither CalMac Ferries Ltd or the Scottish Government would charter a vessel that was not certified to operate in Scottish waters. Achieving the required safety certification to operate a vessel is a matter for the vessels owners and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Employee pay and conditions are the responsibility of Pentland Ferries in relation to its ferry operation. We have not held any discussions with them on this matter.

Free school meals are a vital support to thousands of children and young people across the country - ensuring that children have access to a free, healthy and nutritious meal on every day they are in school and are ready to engage in learning.

The Scottish Government and our local authority partners have reached agreement to introduce universal free school lunches, during school term-time, for children in primaries 4 and 5 during the course of the current financial year. Universal provision for all children in primary 4 will begin in August 2021, whilst universal provision for all children in primary 5 will begin in January 2022.

We are providing local authorities with £28 million in this financial year to deliver this commitment, which will see around 90,000 additional children become newly entitled to receive free school lunches during the course of the forthcoming school year.

We will continue to work with our partners in local authorities over the coming months to ensure that our commitment to expanding the universal provision of free school lunches to include all primary school children, during term-time, is delivered by August 2022.

Whilst the Scottish Government supports and encourages employers to pay the National Living Wage as well as employees’ rights, collective bargaining agreements are a matter for CalMac and Northern Ferries, its employees and the recognised trades unions.

Scottish Ministers fully recognise the importance of reliable ferry services to the economic, social and cultural development of island and remote mainland communities.

The recent breakdown of the MV Loch Seaforth, and the impacts felt across the network, caused unacceptable disruption for our island communities. During the disruption, Transport Scotland worked with CalMac and engaged with local stakeholders in order to ensure everything was done to return the vessel to service as soon as possible. CalMac redeployed vessels in order to minimise the impacts across the network and put in place measures to maximise capacity, such as deploying a second vessel on the route from Kintyre to Arran. It is imperative the causes of that breakdown are understood and lessons properly learned so that we avoid this situation arising again in future.

Ferry passengers, whether travelling for tourism or other purposes, can apply for compensation for disruption under Passenger Rights Legislation. No other compensation for travel disruption is available for the tourism industry or wider sectors of the economy. However, Scottish Ministers have provided £3.6 billion of support during Covid to tourism businesses and we are committed to investing at least £580 million in ports and vessels over the next five years.

Transport Scotland, through its Trunk Road Operating Companies and Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) Concessionaires, is responsible for the management and maintenance of the strategic trunk road network, including motorways. Repair of potholes on all other roads is the responsibility of the local authorities.

The following table shows the number of potholes reported or identified on the trunk road network since 2007, by financial year. Transport Scotland’s asset information system does not hold this data prior to 2007.

The Scottish Government fully funds the inspection and repair of all high risk category 1 defects (for example vandalism flooding, spills and potholes), on the trunk road network. The repair of all category 1 defects is funded from commercially sensitive monthly sums and cannot be provided. Transport Scotland’s asset information system does not hold the cost of repairing individual defect types such as potholes.

Trunk road investment is not allocated, recorded or reported on the basis of local authority area.

Since 2007, this Government has invested £4.35 billion in managing, maintaining, and safely operating the Scottish trunk road and motorway network. In 2021-22, we will invest £529 million, an increase of £59 million from 2020-21.

The budget for structural repairs and network strengthening of trunk roads and bridges, including the Forth Road Bridge, is being increased by £46.5 million in 2021-22 to £207 million. The budget for routine and winter maintenance of trunk roads is being increased by £12.5 million to £106.9 million.

We will continue to invest in our extensive trunk road maintenance and operations programmes, to improve Scotland’s road network through essential road maintenance schemes, our bridge strengthening programme, renewal of ancillary assets and increasing the resilience of the network to unplanned events such as landslides, flooding and extreme weather events.

The increases in Network Strengthening and Structural Repairs budgets will provide further investment to support our programmes of essential road carriageway maintenance and bridge strengthening and repairs contributing to our commitment to double investment in maintenance of existing assets over the next 5 years.

In addition, the overall condition of our network is being enhanced through the delivery of our capital investment programme.

Ministers have not discussed the outcomes of the Island Communities Impact Assessment on HIAL’s Air Traffic Management 2030 Strategy (ATMS) with HIAL. Implementation of the ATMS project, including consideration of the outcome of the Island Communities Impact Assessment, is an operational matter for HIAL.

The Scottish Government has committed to removing non-residential social care charges in line with recommendations made by the Independent Review into Adult Social Care. We are now working with COSLA and other stakeholders to identify the most effective way of achieving this as soon as possible.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-35362 on‎ 11 March 2021. 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