The following table provides a breakdown of the fleet by fuel type.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) is a public body and, as such, are bound by the Scottish public procurement regulations and must competitively tender projects of this value. CMAL ensured they followed the procurement regulations; considering quality, value for money and the timely delivery of vessels to serve our island communities.

In line with normal procurement practice, Scottish Government Ministers had no role in the process or in assessing the bids. No meetings between CMAL and Ministers have taken place specifically to discuss the tender process for the new ferries earmarked to replace current vessels serving Islay.

Transport Scotland officials hold regular working group meetings with CMAL along with CalMac and have done so from January 2019 when the project was initiated. These regular meetings are still ongoing.

Since 2013 we have invested over £50 million in Chargeplace Scotland (CPS), Scotland’s public charging network, which now has more than 2000 publicly available chargepoints. Figures show that Scotland is leading the way on electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The latest figures show that Scottish electric vehicle drivers benefit from almost 40 public charge points per one hundred thousand people, compared to fewer than 30 in England, Just over 20 in Wales and less than 20 in Northern Ireland.

We also provide funding for the Domestic Chargepoint fund which supports the people of Scotland by providing grant funding of £250 (£350 for those in remote parts of Scotland) to install a Domestic Chargepoint at their home. To date this fund has supported the installation of almost 12,000 Domestic Chargepoints to a value of just over £4m.

Our Business (non-Public) Chargepoint fund has helped almost 1300 businesses to install chargepoints for the sole use of occupiers, staff and visitors to a value of just under £10m.

We are currently consulting on draft policy options for the installation of electric vehicle charge points in a number of different buildings types, including an option that sets out a minimum requirement for all new residential buildings with parking spaces.

Transport Scotland are working with Scottish Futures Trust and industry to consider the most appropriate structures and approach to growing and developing charging infrastructure, lever commercial investment and engaging commercial operators to develop the public electric vehicle charge point network at scale and at speed across all of Scotland.

The total rolling stock (a) is currently 350 trains, made up of 1,039 carriages, leased by Abellio ScotRail. These operate around 2,000 weekday services, providing capacity (b) of 551,000 seats across the ScotRail network on a weekday basis. Saturday capacity is approximately 507,000 seats; Sunday capacity is approximately 295,000 seats.

The proposed May 2022 timetable, which is subject to review of consultation responses, would require approximately 593,000 seats per weekday, around a 17% increase on the current timetable. Sufficient rolling stock will be provided to deliver this.

Determinations by Sheriffs are a matter of judicial independence and it would not be appropriate for Scottish Government to comment on specific determinations or the approach of the judiciary in general. The Sheriff has heard the evidence and is the only one in a position to decide if recommendations are necessary. In individual cases, the Sheriff may conclude, given the particular circumstances, that no recommendation should be made.

Whilst statistical data in this report points to differences between Sheriffdoms in the rate of making findings, the report noted that ‘The numbers here are too small to assess statistical significance and therefore qualitative investigation will be a priority of future research.’

We welcome this future research and will give consideration to the findings.

As a Government, we take deaths in custody very seriously, which is why the former Cabinet Secretary for Justice asked the HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland to undertake two independent reviews on deaths in custody.

Fatal Accident Inquiries play a significant role in ensuring there are systems to safeguard and protect those held in legal custody. However, they are just one part of the system for scrutinising deaths in custody. In addition, the prison service, with the NHS and other relevant organisations, carry out a Death in Prison Learning Audit and Review meeting normally within 12 weeks of all deaths in custody. This provides a system for recording any learning and identified actions from individual incidents.

The following table summarises the rejected Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) applications, specifically Slurry Store, that have been appealed. It records the number of applications that were (a) upheld following appeal and (b) are awaiting a decision, in each year since 2015.

Please note that the 2015 round did not include a Slurry Store option and that the 2020 round was not open to new applications, rather a one year’s extension was offered to all Management options that were due to end in 2020. Not all businesses accepted the offer. Slurry Store is not a Management Option, it is capital only, and as such was not included in the round.

The 2021 round that closed at the beginning of July 2021 was also extended. These applications are still being assessed.

* Application type not included in Round

I can confirm that sport scotland received a stage 1 application for investment into the Park of Keir site. This was considered in 2019, with a decision on whether to progress the project to full application stage deferred until further information is available.

The following table summarises the rejected Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) applications, specifically Organic Farming, that have been appealed. It records the number of applications that were (a) upheld following appeal and (b) are awaiting a decision, in each year since 2015.

Please note that the 2020 round was not open to new applications, rather a one year’s extension was offered to all Management options that were due to end in 2020. Not all businesses accepted the offer. 63 Organic applications were offered an extension with 55 applications accepting.

The 2021 round that closed at the beginning of July 2021 was also extended. These applications are still being assessed.

We are working with the other administrations on the introduction of an extended producer responsibility system for packaging that will require producers to cover the full net cost of their packaging when it becomes waste. This will encourage producers to reduce unnecessary packaging and improve the sustainability of their packaging.

Public bodies already have a legal duty to take account of how they can improve social, economic and environmental wellbeing in their procurement activities. We have published guidance on waste and efficient resource consumption on our Sustainable Procurement Tools platform to support public bodies in reducing waste in their supply chains. This guidance highlights packaging as an example of where significant waste may arise, and provides examples of where reducing/ eliminating packaging can be included in the Contract Notice and Specification. In January 2021 we published SPPN 1/2021: Taking account of climate and circular economy considerations in public procurement. This policy note signposts the guidance published on the Tools and clarifies expectations with respect to circular economy considerations in procurement, outlining that procurement professionals should consider whether they can buy refurbished, repaired or pre-used rather than new.

The Scottish Government frequently includes requirements for recycling and recycled materials in our frameworks and contracts. Our IT Consumables Framework - a national framework that can be used by all public bodies across Scotland - requires the supplier to recycle all inbound packaging and encourage their partners to reduce packaging. Our Facilities Management Services Framework requires the supplier to sustainably source materials including packaging, and promote waste reduction and the circular economy through including recycled content in materials, including packaging.

The Scottish Government does not hold the requested data as the franchise agreement does not obligate the franchisee to provide this information.

The member may wish to contact ScotRail for the requested information.

Performance information for ScotRail is available on-line, at the Office of Road and Rail (ORR) Data Portal (Table 3.18). An on-line link to this table can be found via:

http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/5b6fbf8a-7fab-469e-9855-6c6cb4ff67dc

It includes ScotRail’s Public Performance Measure (PPM) information by operating sector and overall, on both a by-period and a moving-annual-average basis.

Also, ScotRail publishes quite detailed information for each four week period on by-station and by-sector PPM. This information is published at stations, and is also available on-line, via: https://www.scotrail.co.uk/performance-and-reliability