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-26365

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 4 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of (a) how and (b) where the budget allocated for active travel was spent, in each financial year from 2020-21 to 2023-24.

The Active Travel Budget is an annually set allocation from the overall Scottish Transport Budget. The Active Travel Programme contains a blend of Grants awarded in accordance with the Scottish public Finance Manual, contracts drawn down from Scottish Government procurement frameworks, and budget transfers to support investments managed in other areas of the portfolio. A breakdown of years 2020-21 to 2023-24 is set out in the following table;

Financial Year 2020-21- £100,500,000.00
Investment	Amount	Mechanism	Delivery Partners
Infrastructure and place making projects	£84,506,198.00	Paid through Grant Awards	All Local Authorities, Sustrans
Regional Transport Partnership Grants	£1,315,600.00	Paid through Grant Awards	Regional Transport Partnerships
Independent Review of Grants	£5,014.66	Framework Call of Contract	MacRoberts LLP
Research Programme on Presumed Liability	£7,470.00	Through budget transfer as part of the Spring and Autumn budget reviews	UK Government DfT, Transport Scotland
Behaviour Change Interventions	£14,665,717.00	Paid through Grant Awards	Cycling Scotland, CyclingUK, Forth Environment Link, Cycling Without Age, Scottish National Heritage, The Bike Station, Sustrans
Active Nation Commissioner	£50,648.00	Public Appointment	Active Nation Commissioner

Financial Year 2021-22 - £116,171,826.69
Investment	Amount	Mechanism	Delivery Partners
Free Bikes for school age children Commitment	£ 2,133,459.29	Paid through Grant Awards	Scottish Cycling, FreeWheel North, Sustrans, Cycling Scotland, Shetland Council, Forth Environment Link, St Paul’s Youth Forum, Angus Bike Hub, Bike for Good, Research Scotland
The development of a replacement strategy for the Cycling Action Plan - the Cycle Framework	£50,000.40	Framework Call of Contract	AECOM
Active Travel Infrastructure Investments	£90,638,802.70 (£51,256,912 of which was managed to projects through Sustrans)	Paid through Grant Awards	All Scottish Local Authorities, Regional Transport Partnerships, Sustrans
Interventions to support people and communities to make Active Travel Choices	£20,984,564.00	Paid through Grant Awards	Paths for All, Cycling Scotland, CyclingUK, Living Streets, Sestrans, Sustrans
Active Travel Contributions to wider Transport and Government Investments includes capital and resource reviews	£2,290,000.00	Through budget transfer as part of the Spring and Autumn budget reviews	Transport Scotland
Active Nation Commissioner	£75,000.00	Public Appointment	Active Nation Commissioner

Financial Year 2022-23 - £149,683,003.69
Investment	Amount	Mechanism	Delivery Partners
Active Travel Infrastructure Investments	£108,472,925.00 (£65,901,425 of which was managed to project through Sustrans)	Paid through Grant Awards	All Scottish Local Authorities, All Scottish Regional Transport Partnerships, Sustrans, Paths for All,
Active Travel Contributions to wider Transport and Government Investments includes capital and resource reviews	£13,374,000.00 (£3,300,000 of which supported road safety projects)	Through budget transfer as part of the Spring and Autumn budget reviews	Transport Scotland
Free Bikes for school age children Commitment	£2,328,868.90	Paid through Grant Awards	Sustrans, Shetland Council, Scottish Cycling, St Paul’s Youth Forum, Forth Environment Link, Cycling Scotland, Bike for Good, Angus Cycle Hub. YoungScot
Access to Bikes and cycling priority interventions	£13,150,907.75	Paid through Grant Awards	Cycling Scotland, CyclingUK, Energy Savings Trust, Bike for Good, UCI Major Events Team
Behaviour Change Interventions	£11,782,502.54	Paid through Grant Awards	Paths for All, COMOUK, Sustrans, Living Streets
Active Nation Commissions	£75,000.00	Public Appointment	Active Nation Commissioner
The Active Travel Transformation Programme	£496,898.75	Framework Call off Contact and administration/facilitation costs	SWECO, Systra,
The development of a replacement strategy for the Cycling Action Plan - the Cycle Framework	£1,900.75	Framework Contract	APS

Financial Year 2023-24 – £183,640,579 allocated for Spend
Investment	Amount	Mechanism	Delivery Partners
Active Travel Infrastructure Investments	£76,899,949.00	Paid through Grant Awards	All Scottish Local Authorities, All Scottish Regional Transport Partnerships, Sustrans, Paths for All,
Active Travel Contributions to wider Transport and Government Investments includes capital and resource reviews	£53,700,000.00	Through budget transfer as part of the Spring and Autumn budget reviews	Transport Scotland
Access to Bikes and cycling priority interventions	£17,403,189.00	Paid through Grant Awards	Cycling Scotland, Energy Savings Trust, Bike for Good, Bike Station, CyclingUK, Scotrail
Contribution to the UCI Cycling World Championships	£1,010,000.00	Through budget transfer as part of the Spring and Autumn budget reviews	UCI Major Events Team
Behaviour Change Interventions	£14,681,896.00	Paid through Grant Awards	Paths for All, Sustrans, Living Streets, Active Travel Ambassador
The Active Travel Transformation Programme, including the Active Travel Transformation Fund	£19,949,045.00	Paid through Grant Awards and a framework call of contract	Scottish Local Authorities, Systra, MacRoberts LLP,

Question reference: S6W-26364

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 4 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the budget investment allocated for active travel was spent, in each financial year from 2020-21 to 2023-24.

The Active Travel Budget is an allocation set within the overall Transport Budget for Scotland. There has been an annual increase to the Active Travel budget each year from 2020 to 2023. This reflects our commitment to increase walking, cycling, or wheeling for everyday journeys.

Active Travel investments encounter challenges such as planning, geographical issues, and supply chain availability that can result in an underspend or a programme being adjusted midterm. Planning, forecasting, and grant management processes are utilised to mitigate the risk of underspend whenever possible. The Active Travel programme, as with many Government investments, was significantly impacted with restrictions under the COVID19 response, adaptations to projects has to be made to allow for continued delivery, and in some cases work was paused. The breakdown of allocations and spend for the years 2020-21 to 2022-23 is as follows;

Year	Allocated Budget	Allocated from Budget	Spend Achieved
2020-21	£100,500,000.00	£100,500,000.00	£75,145,156.46
2021-22	£116,761,432.82	£116,171,826.69	£88,744,213.02
2022-23	£149,977,000.00	£149,683,003.69	£139,918,607.50

2023-24 as a financial year is not complete. The following is therefore indicative and may adjust once the year end process completes.

Year	Allocated Budget	Allocated from Budget	Spend Forecast
2023-24	£189,210,000	£183,644,079.00	£173,782,079

Question reference: S6W-25775

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 8 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any progress regarding the Winchburgh railway station development.

Whilst the Scottish Government is supportive of a new station in Winchburgh, it is our understanding of the station proposal that it is and has always been a developer led station, as outlined in Winchburgh Developments Ltd.’s original Masterplan for further development.

I can confirm, the Scottish Government welcomes the collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach and I and my officials in Transport Scotland will continue to support the process of exploring options for the delivery of a new station at Winchburgh.

Question reference: S6W-25897

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the proposed new gas-fired power station to be built at Peterhead poses any significant risk to Scotland's climate and emissions reduction targets.

In February 2022, an application under section 36 of the Electricity Act seeking consent for construction and operation of Peterhead CCS was formally lodged with the Energy Consents Unit. This is currently before Ministers for determination and as such, it would be inappropriate for Ministers to make any comment on it.

The Scottish Government is committed to Scotland becoming a net zero nation by 2045. Our draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan sets out firmly our opposition to the continued use of unabated fossil fuels to generate electricity, while our updated Climate Change Plan contains more than 200 policies to reduce emissions across all sectors, including energy, in line with this bold ambition.

Question reference: S6W-25776

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-24336 by Fiona Hyslop on 30 January 2024, whether it will provide an update on what progress is being made to replace the existing High Speed Train (HST) rolling stock, in light of the reported safety concerns of their ongoing operation.

Question reference: S6W-25774

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to decarbonise the Fife Circle rail route.

Question reference: S6W-24931

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide an update on the (a) status of and (b) progress in implementing the Rail Fares and Ticketing Strategy, as outlined in section 11 of the 2022 Framework Agreement between Transport Scotland and Scottish Rail Holdings Limited.

Question reference: S6W-24932

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the digital rail ticket issuing services that are provided to ScotRail by Trainline Plc.

Question reference: S6W-24934

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that all rail users have access to ticket purchasing services prior to travel.

Question reference: S6W-24933

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether there has been an increase in funding for ScotRail since it was brought into public ownership.

ScotRail Trains has seen significant recovery in demand and positive growth in revenue during the transition from the pandemic during which it took over the operation of services.

The level of funding paid to ScotRail has therefore seen some reduction as a result of the on-going positive growth and recovery from the pandemic, although additional funding has been specifically provided to support the pilot removal of peak fares.

More widely, the Scottish Government’s total funding for Scotland’s railway system continues to increase and will be around £1.6bn in 2024/25.