Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for ��˿�� to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-01277

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 22 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6T-00001 by Graeme Dey on 26 May 2021, whether it will provide an update on Transport Scotland’s discussions to charter additional tonnage to increase resilience across the ferry network.

Ministers are pleased that following successful berthing trials the MV Arrow has been chartered.

This means more services between Stornoway and Ullapool, as we look to help Lewis and Harris. It will bring additional capacity to this key route during the busy summer period, by allowing CalMac to free up the Loch Seaforth to let more passengers and their vehicles travel. It will also increase freight capacity.

Both Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) and CalMac continue to actively search the market for further suitable tonnage, either to charter or purchase.

The Scottish Government have also confirmed new investment of £580 million in ports and vessels to support and improve Scotland’s ferry services over the next five years, as part of our wider infrastructure investment plan.

Question reference: S6W-01275

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 22 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-35358 by Paul Wheelhouse on 16 March 2021, how it plans to mitigate repair and maintenance costs on ferries.

Further to the answer provided to S5W-35358, the Scottish Government notes the significant investment CalMac makes in vessel maintenance. CalMac have contracts in place with a number of shipyards to undertake the annual dry-docking of vessels in the fleet. These contracts allow improved planning of the overhaul work as well as undertaking preventative works

The Scottish Government established a Resilience Fund in 2018/19, which is in addition to the annual expenditure for maintenance.

Question reference: S6W-01278

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 22 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-34928 by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 February 2021, whether it will provide a breakdown of how it will spend the £580 million that was allocated for “ferry investment” in its Infrastructure Investment Plan.

Question reference: S6W-01276

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 21 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-34928 by Paul Wheelhouse on 11 February 2021, whether it will provide an update on the proposals for vessel renewal.

Work is proceeding on a number of vessel replacement projects. Vessels 801 (MV Glen Sannox) and 802 are under construction and Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) have started the procurement process for a new Islay vessel. In addition, projects are underway to deliver the vessel replacements noted in the Scottish Government's Infrastructure Investment Plan: Gourock-Dunoon/Kilcreggan, the Small Vessel Replacement Programme, Craignure-Oban, Mallaig-Armadale/Lochboisdale and the Northern Isles freighters.

Question reference: S6W-01279

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 19 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the (a) total cost and (b) completion dates for the two ferries under construction at the Ferguson Marine shipyard.

Question reference: S6W-01274

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 19 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates new ferries will be delivered to CalMac.

Question reference: S6W-01280

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 July 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many of CalMac’s 34 ferries are more than 25 years old.

Question reference: S6W-00716

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 7 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what measures it will put in place to help disabled people to travel safely, as public transport returns to full capacity following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Scottish Government takes the travel and safety of disabled passengers extremely seriously and works closely with disabled people, organisations that represent them and the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) to hear the issues being raised across all modes of transport. We also work closely with individual operators who hold the overall responsibility for putting appropriate measures in place, as public transport returns to full capacity following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S6W-00717

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 7 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much financial support it has provided community transport groups during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question reference: S6W-00715

Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 7 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how it will work with community transport groups to improve connectivity, following the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are working with the Community Transport Association Scotland (CTA), community groups and other stakeholders to develop the sector and improve connectivity for community transport and other public transport users. Transport Scotland already has regular discussions with CTA about their ongoing work to promote and develop the sector in Scotland and issues affecting community transport groups.

Transport Scotland also provides annual grant funding to CTA to support this work. We have increased the grant for 2021-22 to enable CTA to undertake a mapping exercise looking at the extent and geographic spread of community transport groups and forums in Scotland. This work is part of CTA's proposals, submitted recently to Transport Scotland, for a Community Transport Investment Fund to make community transport more sustainable and better able to withstand the effects of the pandemic.

These proposals and mapping work will provide valuable information as we continue to work closely with CTA, the bus sector, local authorities and other transport stakeholders to understand the longer term impacts of the pandemic on demand for bus and community transport and how to support local bus service provision.