Chamber and committees

Information on the numbers of metastatic breast cancer patients who have had access to a breast cancer specialist nurse is not held centrally.

As part of the National Cancer Plan, we are providing up to £2.5 million to NHS boards to support 12 pilot programmes across Scotland to deliver a single point of contact for cancer patients. These points of contact will support patients throughout their journey to discuss questions or anxieties related to their clinical care from the point of diagnosis.

Local professional and recreational deer stalkers currently make a contribution to meeting Forestry and Land Scotland's cull targets, where this is appropriate to meet the land management objectives set by Forestry and Land Scotland. This is achieved through open and transparent tendering of opportunities. There are currently no plans to change this.

The Scottish Government announced investment of £580m in ports and vessels to support and improve Scotland’s ferry services, as part of our wider five year Infrastructure Investment Plan, in February 2021. This investment is in addition to the delivery of MV Glen Sannox and Hull 801 which are currently under construction at Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow. Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland 2021-2022 to 2025-2026

On new vessel procurement, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) has progressed two projects. The most advanced of these is the Islay vessel procurement. CMAL is currently assessing bids submitted by the four shipyards who met the initial assessment criteria. The contract award is expected to be made by the end of March 2022, subject to agreeing suitable terms, with anticipated vessel delivery dates around late 2024 for vessel 1 and early to mid 2025 for vessel 2. The second vessels project, which is currently at its early stages, is phase one of the Small Vessel Replacement Programme (SVRP), considering up to seven new vessels for Clyde and Hebrides services. Design development is underway with potential vessel delivery from late 2025.

A number of infrastructure upgrade projects are currently in the design and construction stages to support the arrival of new tonnage to the fleet and the associated cascade redeployment impact of these new vessels. For example, infrastructure upgrade works at Uig (Skye) will replace life expired infrastructure and improve the capacity, reliability and resilience for the longer term benefit of the Skye Triangle routes; and works are well underway at Troon to facilitate the use of the port during the construction period at Ardrossan and to allow its use as an alternative mainland port during any periods of disruption on the network.

I include a list of “Live projects” below with expected completion dates currently ranging between 2023 to 2028. All completion dates for these and any future projects remain subject to funding; procurement and contractor award. Some projects also may feel the impact on any changes to the Vessel procurement programmes and any subsequent associated vessel cascades.

Lochboisdale/Gasay Infrastructure project

Islay Vessel Enabling :

Kennacraig

Port Ellen Terminal Development Project

Port Askaig in Islay

Colonsay

Gourock/Dunoon/Kilcreggan Vessels- power supplies and associated works

Skye Triangle :

Tarbert Terminal Building

Lochmaddy infrastructure works

Uig infrastructure works

Craignure-Oban (Mull) New Vessel project

The Scottish Government does not currently have infrastructure or vessel design contracts with either company; Mott MacDonald or BMT; that is overseen or is directly managed by Transport Scotland, however both companies are used by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) as part of their Professional Consultancy Services Framework.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) awarded a £155,000 contract to international design and engineering firm BMT to provide consultancy services for the concept design of a new passenger ferry for the Gourock, Dunoon and Kilcreggan routes as part of the Gourock Dunoon Kilcreggan Infrastructure and Vessels Programme.

Following a public sector procurement process, in August 2020, CMAL appointed engineering firm Mott MacDonald to draw up high-level options for the redevelopment of Gourock harbour.

Mott MacDonald was also awarded a £1.5 million contract which covers design consultancy services for vessel enabling works at Port Ellen and Port Askaig in Islay, Kennacraig and Colonsay.

Further details of these projects can be found here - CMAL Caledonian Maritime Assets LtdHome - CMAL Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (cmassets.co.uk) .

The outputs from Project Neptune will be considered alongside the suite of existing documents that support our ambitious vision for Scotland’s transport system for the next 20 years.

The value and duration of the contracts the Scottish Government has signed with Ernst & Young in connection with the Scottish ferries network since 1 January 2015 are listed below:

Project Neptune - £156,000 – 2021-2022

Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services: Financial Support - £404,000 – 2015-end of CHFS contract .

The Scottish Government is investing £62 million, through the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB), to support 276 new battery-electric buses and charging infrastructure. 137 of the buses will be built in Falkirk, bringing the total number of buses being built in Scotland with Government support to 344. ScotZEB Phase 1 included a “community benefit” criteria that all bids were scored against. Guidance encouraged bidders to be creative and innovative in finding ways that their bid would deliver wider benefits, giving the example of creating jobs or enhancing economic development, including in the local area. The review of Phase 1 of ScotZEB will consider how this criterion might be strengthened in the future.

We are fortunate that one of the world’s leading manufacturers of zero-emission buses, Alexander Dennis, is headquartered in Scotland. Alexander Dennis’s order book is typically comprised of about 25% of orders from Scottish operators, with the remainder coming from other parts of the UK or beyond, while the highly skilled, green jobs benefit the local community. Through the Falkirk Growth Deal, including £1 million from Scottish Government, ADL will lead on the creation of a Public Transport Net Zero Tech Cluster to focus on cost effective decarbonisation of public transport. This will include the creation of a campus with an R&D centre of excellence, a high-tech incubator and a dedicated flexible carbon neutral manufacturing space.

The Bus Decarbonisation Taskforce is a short life group comprised of leaders from the bus operating, bus manufacturing, finance, energy and public sectors. Its remit is to explore the hurdles and opportunities in transitioning to a zero emission bus fleet. It is not a decision making body, it does not exercise any statutory functions nor handle any funds and its role includes helping to shape and inform relevant Scottish Government policy commitments.

We aim to publish a draft of the Islands Connectivity Plan for consultation by the end of the 2022.

The underspend on HM Treasury Funds available for each of the three years is as follows:

2018-19 - £339m (£191m Resource, £147m Financial Transactions and £1m Capital)

2019-20 - £256m (£85m Resource, £97m Financial Transactions and £74m Capital)

2020-21 - £426m (£358m Resource, £61m Financial Transactions and £7m Capital)

This includes all planned and anticipated carry forward commitments built into the following years’ budgets.

For 2021-22 the current carry forward requirement is £511m to fulfil known and forecast 2022-23 obligations. Current forecasting is in line with this requirement but remains subject to final movements and the outturn processes. The final underspend figure for 2021-22 will be the 2022-23 Scotland Reserve opening balance.

It is unclear what is meant by funding uplifts in the question.