Question reference: S5W-31275
- Asked by: Gail Ross, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 18 August 2020
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Current status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 26 August 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding whether the European Commission investigation into the complaint regarding the Northern Isles road equivalent tariff (RET) will be resolved.
Answer
As I confirmed to Parliament, in the Chamber on 20 August 2020, Transport Scotland has had further engagement with the European Commission on potential options for looking at reducing fares on the Pentland Firth. EC officials have written to Transport Scotland expressing their immediate views and the next step is for Transport Scotland officials to take forward those views which have been provided by the EC officials and then look to identify plausible, compliant options for introducing reduced fares on the Pentland Firth.
As I explained in the Chamber, the work to undertake those next steps has been impacted by deployment of key officials during the Covid-19 pandemic response, but I gave an undertaking to the Member, and repeat that commitment in this response, that as personnel are now in many cases returning to their posts that this work will be picked up as soon as possible.