Chamber and committees

There is no record of funding being provided by the Scottish Government to 'Northwood Charitable Trust' since 2019.

Network Rail has an overall responsibility of the Scottish rail network infrastructure and Office of Rail and Road (ORR) holds Network Rail to account for the delivery of its obligations.

ORR publishes its quarterly and periodic (4-weekly) statistics on punctuality, reliability and causes of delay for passenger trains operating on the mainline network in Great Britain on its website: Passenger rail performance | ORR Data Portal .

Transport Focus carries out passenger satisfaction surveys on behalf of all train operating companies on the GB Rail network. In the last survey published in September 2023, ScotRail achieved one of the highest independent passenger satisfaction survey results amongst UK train operators, at 91%. This is a 2% increase from its previous score of 89% between December 2022 and March 2023.

It also represents a 1% increase in overall satisfaction with ScotRail since it came into public ownership.

The Isle of Skye remains one of Scotland’s most popular tourist destinations. The increase in traffic over the Skye Bridge, which is part of the A87 trunk road, is reflective of its continuing popularity and as a route for those travelling to the Western Isles and to the Island of Raasay by ferry.

This government recognises that increased traffic also creates challenges. That is why, along with maintaining and ensuring resilience of the trunk road, we are upgrading the A87/A855 junction in Portree. This aims to improve safety for all road users, with work due to commence in this financial year. More widely we are investing approximately £4.65 million in 2023-24 on maintaining the A87 trunk road, which includes the section from the Skye Bridge to the port of Uig.

Longer term, the second Strategic Transport Projects Review recommends that investment on the A87 and wider trunk road network is targeted at maintaining a network of roads which are safe, resilient and adapted to deal with the impacts of climate change.

Improvement to local roads and transport infrastructure remain the responsibility of the Highland Council.

In an extremely challenging financial climate, and following a worst case scenario UK Autumn Statement in which UK Ministers prioritised tax cuts over public spending, we have had to take difficult decisions in setting this budget. The amount Scotland has available to spend is still largely driven by the block grant, which is derived from the UK Government's spending decisions and continuing constraint on public expenditure. The block grant has fallen by 1.2% in real terms since 2022-23 and, because of the UK Government's failure to inflation-proof capital budgets, our capital spending power is due to contract by almost 10% in real terms over 5 years.

Despite this, I am pleased that this Government has committed £4.7 billion in capital and resource in 2024-25 for activities that will have a positive impact on delivery of our climate change goals, and funding of almost £3.9 billion for transport across Scotland. The total budget for my portfolio increases by £47.7 million in 2024-25, which is a £27.9 million (0.6%) reduction in real terms using GDP deflators published in November 2023.

A significant proportion of the expenditure in my portfolio is legally and contractually committed, and I have ensured that those commitments are met in full in this budget as well as allocating funding to support critical maintenance and renewal expenditure to ensure that the people of Scotland have access to a safe and reliable transport system.

I have considered equalities and fairer Scotland duties and progress towards our statutory targets for climate change and child poverty in prioritising the budget available to me. I refer to the Equalities and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement and Carbon Assessment published alongside this budget.

In order to obtain accurate data from projects funded through Scotland’s Heat Network Fund and the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme we need to gather information for a reasonable time period post commissioning of the project to ensure accurate data is collated. As we do not have a full data set, we are unable to provide a reliable figure at this time.

In addition, due to heat supply agreements currently being developed by a number of projects, Scottish Government is unable to provide accurate estimates of heat supply for pre-capital projects as figures supplied by projects are estimates only and could change in the future.

Transport Scotland’s Operating Company for the A83, BEAR Scotland, has recently carried out surveys on the road during very heavy rain conditions. During the severe weather event of 6th to 8th of October 2023, both Council maintained and Trunk roads were affected by landslides as well as localised flooding however there is no evidence to suggest the A83 is regularly restricted to single file traffic for any significant lengths of time. BEAR Scotland will continue to manage and maintain the A83 in accordance with Transport Scotland’s robust maintenance contracts.

This section of the A83, in common with the rest of the trunk road network, is subject to a variety of inspections and surveys. Weekly safety inspections are carried out to identify defects that represent an immediate hazard, which are then required to be repaired within specified timescales.

In some cases where no designed drainage system exists this will be considered as an improvement or vulnerable location scheme and prioritised accordingly. Interventions may include enhanced management and maintenance to physical intervention being carried out when funding is approved by Transport Scotland.

Cyclic maintenance is also undertaken annually to ensure that all drainage assets on the trunk road are clean and functioning to their maximum capacity. This includes cleaning gullies and manholes, re-cutting grips and jetting piped grips annually and harrowing filter drain material every three years.

As set out in the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Ministers will specify the standards of the Single Building Assessment. Following a robust tendering process, we have appointed an independent contractor to develop an end-to-end Single Building Assessment. The specification will be informed by stakeholder engagement as well as drawing on experience from the pilot phase of the Cladding Remediation Programme.

The Scottish Government approach to the bus powers in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 ("the 2019 Act") is to empower local transport authorities with flexible tools to enable them to determine what is best to address any transport challenges according to their local needs. Local transport authorities are encouraged to consider the full powers available to them, including partnership work, franchising and local authority run services which sit alongside their ability to subsidise services.

Through the Community Bus Fund we have provided funding to support local transport authorities to explore the options for bus services set out in the 2019 Act and improve public transport in their areas. More details are provided in the answer to question to S6W-24668 on 2 February 2024. 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 .

In addition on 29 January, Transport Scotland officials published an overview of the bus powers available to local transport authorities, which provides an outline of all the powers available to them, and the opportunities they provide to improve local services. The document is available on the Transport Scotland website. Officials continue to engage with local transport authorities and other key stakeholders on the development of detailed guidance to help in their consideration of the franchising and partnership powers. This guidance will be available later this year.

In September 2023, the Scottish Government launched the Community Bus Fund which supports local transport authorities to explore the options in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 ("the 2019 Act") and improve public transport in their areas.

In 2023-2024 the Community Bus Fund made available £750,000 of resource funding for pathfinder projects, being developed by local authorities and regional transport partnerships. This funding was intended to support initial feasibility and preparatory work required for the 2019 Act, including franchising, partnerships and local authority run services. A further £5 million of capital funding in 2023-24 was allocated through the General Capital Grant to local authorities to improve bus services.

While the Scottish Government encourages local transport authorities to consider the full range of tools available to them under the 2019 Act, it is for them to determine what is best to address any transport challenges according to their local needs.