Chamber and committees

Transport Scotland is responsible for the management and maintenance of the strategic trunk road network including motorways, which is delivered through our operating company contracts. There are no single track trunk roads in Scotland.

Local authorities have a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain local roads in their area. Each local authority will be best placed to advise how many miles of single track A roads are in their area.

The additional £8.55 billion of UK Government funding for CRSTS2 relates to financial years 2027-28 to 2031-32.

This funding will form part of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) future budget allocation. The Scottish Government will receive additional Barnett funding as part of its block grant based on any increase in the DfT’s total budget for the relevant financial years in accordance with the Statement of Funding Policy.

This funding announcement falls into the next UK Government Spending Review period and confirmation of funding levels for the Scottish Government will only be confirmed once the Spending Review has concluded.

Dredging and the sea deposit of dredged material are licensable marine activities under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 and a marine licence granted by Marine Directorate – Licensing Operations Team (MD-LOT) on behalf of the Scottish Ministers is required for the activities. A marine licence or dredging authorisation granted to Clydeport does not place a requirement on the port to dredge. It only permits the activity if the port determines it is necessary.

The Statutory Harbour Authority (SHA) for the area is Clydeport (Peel Ports) which is responsible for marine safety in its area of jurisdiction and has a statutory duty to maintain its navigable waterways and channels. SHAs are independent statutory bodies – each governed by their own local legislation – and are deemed commercial entities. Therefore, the Scottish Government has no say in the day-to-day running of their business, nor can it dictate business decisions made by a company.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency, on behalf of the Department of Transport, conduct a three yearly Port Marine Safety Code (PMSC) compliance exercise where every SHA, berth, terminal, or marine facility is required to submit a signed statement confirming their compliance with the PMSC. For the period 2021-2023 inclusive, a statement confirming compliance was received from Clydeport.

In our Control Period 6 (2019 – 2024) through our High Level Output Statement (HLOS) we tasked Network Rail with development of an efficient electrification technical specification optimised for Scotland, in order to deliver an efficient and affordable rolling programme of electrification, with appropriate plant, staff and resources based in Scotland. We have built on this on our Control Period 7 HLOS with a requirement placed on to Network Rail to continue to deliver and further develop the efficient electrification technical specification agreed across Team Scotland (Network Rail, Transport Scotland and ScotRail).

With all rail infrastructure works, including railway electrification, Transport Scotland’s officials actively engage with Network Rail and rail industry partners to seek ways to reduce the cost of construction.

For example, Transport Scotland participates in Network Rail Scotland’s Decarbonisation Innovation workstream. This workstream aligns with Network Rail’s Efficient Electrification work with the goal of enabling cost and time savings for electrification schemes as well as identifying process and safety improvements.

Transport Scotland has maintained a rolling programme of electrification work, unlike elsewhere in Great Britain, as reflected in current work on Barrhead and then East Kilbride to ensure learning curve benefits are consolidated.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The member may wish to contact the British Transport Police.

The budgets allocated are as follows:

Scotland’s AI Strategy was published in March 2021. Taking account of recent and fast-paced technological developments and a growing international focus on the opportunities and threats which AI can offer, it is essential that Scotland has in place a strategy which keeps us on the forefront of those developments.

In a Scottish Parliament debate on 1 June 2023, I announced that I would ask the Scottish AI Alliance Leadership Group to undertake an independent review setting out what Scotland needs to do to optimise the benefits of AI. The review will set out recommendations on how we can maximise the potential of AI whilst minimising its risk and ensuring benefit for all.

The final review report and recommendations are expected to be available in early 2024, and will be shared publicly when available. The review is not a formal update of the strategy, more a refocus and refresh given the speed of development.

I last met with the COSLA Culture Conveners group on 21 September 2023.

During this meeting we discussed ways in which we can collaborate to progress our shared priorities for culture in Scotland.

The next meeting of the Culture Conveners, which I will attend, is scheduled to take place in early 2024.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail, though we can advise that the Scottish Government does not support Driver Only Operation and continues to specify a requirement for a second member of staff to assist passengers on every ScotRail train.

I fully appreciate the need to get bookings released early so that businesses and individuals can plan ahead. The Scottish Government is aiming to confirm fares in the coming weeks to allow bookings to be opened beyond 31 March 2024.