Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning, convener and committee. The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 was designed to make Scotland’s transport network cleaner, smarter and more accessible than ever before. During stages 2 and 3 of the parliamentary passage of the bill that became the 2019 act, a significant number of amendments were made. For context, the convener may recall that the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee considered more than 400 amendments at stage 2 and that the consideration of amendments at stage 3 lasted for around seven hours. That included amendments to provisions that amended existing primary legislation and the introduction of new provisions to which cross-references were made.

As a consequence, the bill as passed contained a significant number of provisions that required to be renumbered and cross-references that had to be corrected before its publication. When that exercise was undertaken, a substantial number of cross-references and other numbering errors were corrected in a short timescale, prior to the publication of the act. However, in a few cases, unfortunately, cross-references were not updated.

The primary purpose of the regulations, therefore, is to correct those erroneous cross-references and the incorrect numbering in the act’s provisions on bus services and smart ticketing. The regulations also remove duplicate provision on the parliamentary procedure that attaches to regulations under the act.

We are also using the opportunity to correct one minor drafting error in section 55 of the act—on parking prohibitions—to ensure that the effect of that provision is clear.

The regulations make relatively minor technical amendments to the act, to ensure that full effect is given to the Parliament’s intention in passing it. I am happy to answer any questions that members may have.

If you are happy for me to do so, I am happy just to move the motion.

I am happy to forgo summing up.

Motion agreed to.

It was a special adviser.

In terms of how we would normally operate and, to be fair, as was set out in the evidence sessions, the Scottish Government has been as accessible and approachable to interests as it can be, but in an appropriate way as long as things are documented. Clearly, the meeting was documented but not in the form that it would currently be done, which would be an official minute.

I think that it is a bit unfair to expect me to have on tap knowledge about the different times when that was discussed in Cabinet during a period that was both extensive and some time ago. I am not really in a position to answer. I do not have recall of that.

The issue will have come up at different times and progress will have been reported to Cabinet. Those issues were not part of my lead responsibility at that time, but the decisions that had to be taken would have been taken. A lot of that would have come to Parliament in the form of ministerial statements by the relevant cabinet secretaries at different times, as happens now, but I cannot give you instant recall of what happened during that 11-year period. With respect, I am not sure that that is something that you can ask me about now, in my capacity as Minister for Transport, when I am meant to be responding to a report that was published only recently.

There are different issues. I think that the committee has had the evidence on the roles and responsibilities of ministers and cabinet secretaries—including what needs to come to Cabinet and what does not—but I would need to check that. The committee’s report went into quite a bit of detail on the authorisation for the approval of the award of tender and at what level the decision should have been made—whether it was appropriate for a minister to make that decision or whether it should have been a Cabinet-level decision. The committee went through that in the report. Certain decisions will be made at certain times.

I honestly do not want to mislead the committee by saying something that is not true. I do not have instant recall as to when those decisions were made. I am focusing in my evidence today on what I was asked to do, which was not even to give evidence on what happened leading up to your report; it was to respond to your request for a response following the Scottish Government’s existing response, which was given in May 2023.

I do not think that that is new information. I think that it was in your report as well.

That is really for the shipyards to know, as I said.

Good morning. I thank the committee for its invitation to address further its report on arrangements to deliver new vessels 801 and 802 and the Scottish Government’s response to it, which was sent to the committee in May 2023.

As the committee will be aware, I was appointed as Minister for Transport in June 2023. I am aware that the committee felt that the Scottish Government did not respond as fully to the report as had been expected, and I want to address that issue in my opening remarks.

First, as confirmed in the then minister’s response, the Scottish Government fully welcomed the committee’s report, which built on work already undertaken by Audit Scotland and the earlier report by the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee. The report contained a number of observations and recommendations throughout. Although the Government’s response was not a point-by-point one to all of the committee’s stated views, observations and conclusions, it nevertheless extracted for the Government the key recommendations that could be identified in the report and responded to those. The approach taken was to group those recommendations where we felt that there was a common theme.

On recommendations for other parties, such as the Auditor General, the Government did not comment in detail, but it noted that we could engage fully with any further audit work that was identified. As the response came from the previous transport minister, I am keen to identify—either today or in writing, if that would be helpful—which specific areas the committee considers warrant a further response to that already given.

I recently reread the report in great detail and, in scrutinising what had been requested of the Government, I identified two areas that were not fully responded to, both of which relate to wider cross-Government areas and process improvements. I will ensure that the committee receives a response to those. Having spent two years up to June as deputy convener of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee and as member of the Economy and Fair Work Committee, I take the work of all parliamentary committees very seriously, and I am committed to making sure that the committee has what it needs to conclude its work on this important matter.

I would also highlight that my colleague Neil Gray has given evidence to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on the current issues, as did I earlier this week. The committee might also be aware that a further update on delivery progress from the chief executive officer of the shipyard is due to be given to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee at the end of the month. Ministers will continue to work with the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee in its scrutiny of that element.