Chamber and committees

Work to increase standardisation since the Scottish Government’s Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland 2021-22 to 2025-26 was published, can be seen in the announced Invitation to Tender (17 December 2021) for two new ferries for Islay and the continuing work as part of the Small Vessel Replacement Programme (SVRP) that will see up to 7 vessels replaced on the west coast as part of Phase 1 of the programme.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) are taking forward the SVRP and are currently working with the appointed naval architects (Navalue) who are providing consultancy services for the concept design stage as well as investigating and evaluating the feasibility of designing low emission ferries to be in line with the Scottish Government climate change and standardisation commitments.

We also continue to support the vessel resilience funding that can be spent on replacing obsolete equipment on existing vessels.

We continue to engage extensively with CalMac Ferries Ltd on a regular basis concerning timetables, and through the twice yearly timetable consultation process.

As part of the Ardrossan project; Transport Scotland continues to meet with and provide support to CalMac Ferries Ltd in the development of service continuity plans for the Arran ferry service when it temporarily relocates to Troon.

A small number of contracts between ScotRail Trains Ltd. and Abellio is expected to be in place from 1 April to ensure the continuity of rail services in Scotland from 1 April 2022.

In particular, a contract for the continued use of the Abellio Shared Services Centre will maintain employment for staff in its Glasgow office.

We continue to engage extensively with the Arran Ferry Committee on timetable matters through the twice yearly timetable consultation process, which has recently concluded with regard to the Winter 2022 timetable, and additionally through the Ardrossan Task Force which met most recently on 23 February 2022.

In the coming months CalMac Ferries Ltd will undertake a public consultation regarding service continuity plans for Arran ferry services when they temporarily relocate to Troon.

Tourism, planning and housing officials have worked closely together on the development of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Order 2022 and Town Country Planning (Short-term Let Control Areas) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022. The policy area taking the lead will depend on the specifics of each case.

However, generally the short-term lets policy team within the Directorate for Housing and Social Justice are responsible for matters relating to the short-term lets licensing scheme and control area regulations, which fall within my portfolio remit.

The overall responsibility for tourism businesses and tourism strategy remains with the tourism policy team within the Directorate for Economic Development, which fall within the remit of the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy.

Discussions are ongoing regarding the proposed distribution of the Financial Transactions available for 2022-23. We plan to continue to support the Open Market Shared Equity scheme, but allocations have not yet been agreed for the full use of these funds.

The Tenant Hardship Loan Fund is now closed to new applications and there will be no further awareness raising of the loan. However, tenants can still seek support for pandemic related rent arrears through the Tenant Grant Fund, which is non-repayable and being delivered through local authorities to prevent homelessness.

The name of the short-life group was the Materials Shortages Working Group.

The purpose of the group was to examine where the immediate shortages were most acute and to identify opportunities to remove barriers and build capacity within Scotland. The minutes for this group were not published.

The group was set up in June 2021 and met a total of 12 times with the final meeting taking place on Tuesday 28 September 2021.

A letter summarising the key findings from the Materials Shortage Working Group’s work was sent to the Economy and Fair Work committee on 25 January 2022 and has been published on the Scottish Parliament website. Details of this letter can be found in the following link.

Construction Materials Shortages Working Group | Scottish Parliament Website

It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate. The precise details regarding the number of spaces where this approach has been used to manage specific ventilation issues is not held by the Scottish Government.

Through the work of the Construction Leadership Forum (CLF) which I chair the Scottish Government is keen to see renewed focus on construction quality, including regulatory compliance, which will improve life-cycle value to clients and productivity of the industry.

The CLF meets bi-monthly with trade union, construction industry and government representatives collaborating on driving progress on the Construction Recovery Plan, which contains a range of practical actions to support the sector. As part of the transformation sub group of the CLF, work is ongoing on an action to gather and disseminate lessons from construction quality improvement initiatives and issue guidance on maintaining focus on construction quality and regulatory compliance during economic downturn. Another action is to establish the infrastructure to take forward and accelerate the work of the Construction Quality Improvement Collaborative.

We are working with the UK Government to explore how the proposed New Homes Ombudsman scheme provided for in the UK Building Safety Bill could operate in Scotland. We will continue this engagement to try to achieve a scheme that works for Scotland and respects the devolution settlement to ensure that buyers can purchase new-build homes with confidence and be assured that any problems relating to quality will be resolved effectively and efficiently.

In relation to the Building Standards system and to improve compliance with the building regulations, a consultation on proposals on the introduction of a new Compliance Plan Manager role, the definition of high risk buildings and penalties and enforcement was issued on 11 November 2021 and closed on 9 February 2022. Raised standards in this respect would be to ensure buildings meet the minimum building regulatory standard.

Further advice can be obtained from consumeradvice.scot which is a free consumer helpline funded by the Scottish Government.