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Prior to being permitted to be on a tender list, for a Transport Scotland contract, all applicants must first declare if they have been involved in blacklisting. Farrans Roadbridge (FRBJV), the contractor for the A737 Dalry Bypass, has confirmed that they have not at any stage previously, nor will they at any time during the period of the A737 Dalry Bypass Contract engage or participate in blacklisting activities in the employment of workers, whether this be directly employed labour or through any FRBJV engaged sub contractors. As such, FRBJV has signed a declaration to Transport Scotland stating this to be the case.

The Scottish Government expect those who deliver public contracts to adopt ethical and fair business practices.

Transport Scotland has agreed to meet with Unite the Union on a regular basis to discuss the current and upcoming projects to ensure opportunities to enhance contract provisions are fully investigated.

Farrans Roadbridge (FRBJV), the contractor for the A737 Dalry Bypass, has confirmed that "margin charges" on workers' payslips are not deducted during construction of the project. FRBJV has further advised that they will not tolerate such activities on their projects. On the A737 Dalry Bypass, FRBJV employ direct labour, sub-contracted labour and at times task specific agency labour all of which they ensure operate within their ethical business and fair work policy and approved and accepted payment guidelines.

There has been a considerable response to our consultation on the National Concessionary Travel Scheme, with over 2,800 members of the public and more than 100 organisations offering their views. We have been considering all the views expressed during the consultation process carefully and expect to publish our analysis and the responses to the consultation in the near future.

The intention is to implement the Bill as soon as practicable in order that those who wish to exercise their legal rights in Scotland's courts may benefit from more predictable costs in civil actions, increased funding options and a greater level of equality in the funding relationship between claimants and defenders in personal injury actions.

As with all complex legislation, however, implementation will be staggered over a period of time, beginning with the commencement of some provisions of the Bill in the latter part of this year, following Royal Assent. Other provisions will require to be supplemented by rules of court which will be brought forward by the Scottish Civil Justice Council before they can be commenced. This is particularly the case in relation to Part 4 of the Bill on group proceedings.

As with the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, full implementation is therefore likely to take place over a number of years, subject to appropriate transitional provisions.

Peel Ports is a commercial company and the Scottish Government has no direct locus in business decisions made by the company on how to best utilise its resources.

However, the Peel Ports CEO of Peel Ports, Mark Whitworth, has written to me this week outlining the importance of the dry dock at Inchgreen and their plans to attract contracts and work that will utilise this facility. This includes the potential to generate investment and new jobs in Inverclyde should they be successful in attracting new contracts. Mr Whitworth has offered to meet to discuss this issue as well as other investment Peel Ports plan for its Scottish operations.

We would generally use the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE)
generation to compare across technologies.

Although it is from 2016, BEIS have a publication which gives the
costs per MWh of each technology.

Unit costs for electricity production vary from site to site
and are dependent on a number of factors including

the type of generating technology, the age and efficiency of
the technology, the fuel required, the cost of that fuel, and the
cost of finance. A widely accepted method for cost comparison
 across technologies is the Levelised Cost of Electricity,
which BEIS last published in 2016 (link above). This looks at a
 range of scenarios, but the below
gives an indication of costs for projects commissioning in 2025,
and gives the following unit costs
in response to the question:

a) Renewable Sources:

·         Onshore Wind: £61/MWh

·         Offshore Wind: £86/MWh

b) Fossil Fuels

·         Combined Cycle Gas Turbine: £82/MWh

·         Reciprocating Diesel Engines: £187/MWh

c) Nuclear:

·         Nuclear: £95/MWh

Since the publication of this report from BEIS it has been apparent
that generation costs have been driven lower (as evidenced
by the 2017 Contracts for Difference auction clearing price
of £57.50 for offshore wind), and the above costs are
likely to therefore be higher than in reality.

Also, expected trends are that fossil fuel (gas, coal, oil)
and carbon prices will continue to rise for the foreseeable
future, resulting in an increasing upward pressure on electricity
generation costs from fossil fuel generation. This is in comparison
to renewable generation which does not require fuel to operate,
and therefore will not have this upward unit cost pressure from fuel.