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-26467

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what level of funding was provided for the Rail Systems Alliance Scotland in each year of control period 6.

Question reference: S6W-26473

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to protect the 42 jobs at Babcock Rail that are reportedly at risk of redundancy under the Rail Systems Alliance Scotland contract with Network Rail.

Question reference: S6W-26471

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 March 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact on (a) safety, (b) rail performance and (c) jobs of the reported reduction in the work bank and volume of work allocated to the Rail Systems Alliance Scotland for year one of control period 7.

Question reference: S6W-26416

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 22 March 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 April 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the ScotRail Club 50 discount for online purchases is 20%, but only 10% for tickets purchased at a staffed ticket office.

Question reference: S6O-03276

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that rail travel is safe.

Question reference: S6W-25964

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 20 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans for a revaluation of domestic properties in 2024 for the purposes of setting council tax rates.

Question reference: S6W-26046

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with ScotRail regarding it scoring one out of five for the (a) "station staff" and (b) "station ticket offices" service schedule in each Service Quality Inspection Regime (SQUIRE) inspection since March 2023.

Question reference: S6W-26047

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what improvements it is seeking from ScotRail as a result of it scoring one out of five for the (a) "station staff" and (b) "station ticket offices" service schedule in each Service Quality Inspection Regime (SQUIRE) inspection since March 2023.

As noted in S6W-26045 on 18 March 2024, the SQUIRe regime is one of the toughest performance regimes in the UK. It is an operational matter for ScotRail to investigate and rectify areas where performance has not met the standards expected by the Scottish Government. By doing so the overall scoring for ScotRail should improve.

The scoring shows that the SQUIRe regime is operating as expected by highlighting areas where ScotRail is not performing as expected and where improvement is required.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Question reference: S6W-26048

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the ScotRail framework agreement specifies that it should give "particular attention" to "identifying efficiencies in staffing levels" at railway stations.

The Framework Agreement between Scottish Ministers and Scottish Rail Holdings confirms under the Stations, Operational Plan section that “particular attention should be given to identifying efficiencies in staffing levels as well as focus on elements which will be monitored through SQUIRE”. This provides ScotRail with the ability to ensure that staff are deployed appropriately across the rail network to deliver a high performing service that passengers rightly expect.

Question reference: S6W-26045

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason ScotRail has scored one out of five for the (a) "station staff" and (b) "station ticket offices" service schedule in each Service Quality Inspection Regime (SQUIRE) inspection since March 2023.

Under the SQUIRe regime, Transport Scotland audits and scores ScotRail under set Service Schedules which include station staff and station tickets offices along with other important aspects like cleanliness and CCTV.

In each Service Schedule there are many aspects in which a failure notice may be attributed including staff uniform or ability to retail all tickets. In order for a pass to be granted it requires ScotRail to meet all aspects of the Schedule.

It is therefore correct that should ScotRail fail to meet the demands of each Service Schedule aspect that a failure notice is served thus affecting the score of that Schedule.

The SQUIRe regime is one of the toughest performance regimes in the UK with many of the target levels set at 90% or higher. ScotRail is required to address any issues identified during inspections as quickly as possible.