Chamber and committees

The National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group (NSPLG) published guidance to support local area suicide prevention action planning in April 2021 ( https://www.cosla.gov.uk/about-cosla/our-teams/health-and-social-care/local-area-suicide-prevention-action-plan-guidance ). The guidance supports the delivery of Action 1 of the Suicide Prevention Action Plan ‘Every Life Matters’, which is sponsored by COSLA.

Whilst responsibility for suicide prevention planning and delivery sits locally – with recommendations and decisions informing action at that level - the NSPLG will review progress on the development of local suicide prevention action plans across Scotland in April 2022. Meantime, there is ongoing engagement between the NSPLG’s delivery lead on local suicide prevention action planning and local suicide prevention leads. This supports the development and continuous improvement of suicide prevention plans - through advice, support and sharing of good practice. It also ensures there is appropriate alignment and learning between national and local plans.

Transport Scotland is aware of the ferry services model in British Columbia, Canada. This will be included as part of international benchmarking element of the ongoing review of tripartite arrangements in place in Scotland.

The MV Coruisk resumed normal timetabled services on the afternoon of Friday 16 July 2021 on the Oban – Craignure route.

Transport Scotland officials have remained in close contact with operators throughout the pandemic. A meeting to specifically discuss the issue was held on 30 March 2021 with Pentland Ferries, 22 April with John O’Groats Ferries and 17 February with Serco NorthLink Ferries. Officials will remain closely engaged with operators as the work progresses.

Employee matters including the promotion of third-party financial products including salary advances for its staff remain the operational responsibility of Abellio ScotRail and therefore does not require permission as such from Transport Scotland.

The Prior Information Notice (PIN) referred to confirmed Ministers’ intention for Scotrail services to be delivered through a wholly owned company of the Scottish Ministers in terms of the Operator of Last Resort following expiry of the current ScotRail Franchise Agreement.

It is intended that Operator of Last Resort arrangements will provide a period of stability for passengers and staff while we assess the scale and pace of recovery from Covid 19 and future rail reform.

As the PIN was published on 31 March 2021, almost 2 months ahead of the UK Government’s delayed White Paper on Rail, there was considerable uncertainty around reform at the time. Accordingly, through the PIN, Ministers reserved the right to put OLR arrangements in place as appropriate, up to the maximum period of 10 years. It also indicated the envisaged direct award at that point was for a period of 3-5 years with any optional additional period(s) exercisable at the sole discretion of Ministers.

Although the White Paper has now been published, we are pressing the UK Government for further clarity on how their proposals, and timescales for implementation of future rail reform, will impact our aspirations for Scotland’s railways. This will help inform future decisions about the duration of the OLR arrangements, subject to the 10 year maximum referred to in the PIN.

In Scotland we are continuing to work under the interim Subsidy Control regime and provisions held within the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Draft legislation was laid in the UK Parliament on 30 June 2021. We will now take time to consider the draft legislation and reflect any new options that may be available for procurement of ferry services and/or impact on ferry fares policy.

The total cost of the National Concessionary Travel Scheme for Older and Disabled People and Young Persons is £223,097,800.

This cost is for financial year 2020-21, and includes free bus and ferry travel and the Covid-19 Support Grant payments for the Older and Disabled People scheme, and bus, rail and ferry travel for young people aged 16-18 and volunteers up to age 25.

The organisational structure for ScotRail Trains Limited is currently being reviewed however the vast majority of Abellio ScotRail staff will transfer over.

The Scottish Government has been reviewing the restrictions and guidance in place regularly.

Following the most recent review, the First Minister announced on 13 July that all remaining parts of Scotland would move to protection level 0 of the updated Strategic Framework with effect from 19 July.

This decision means that under our published guidance up to 200 people can now attend a marriage ceremony or wedding reception subject to the capacity of the couple’s chosen venue with the appropriate physical distancing in place.

In addition, we have amended the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Local Levels) (Restrictions and Requirements) Regulations 2020 to reduce the required physical distance between households indoors to 1 metre in all public venues.

The First Minister’s statement summarises the evidence and data supporting these decisions. Information about strategy and evidence is published at Coronavirus in Scotland (see Scottish Government strategy and evidence). We have also published a report on the outcomes of the recent physical distancing review and information about the current state of the epidemic .