- Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it or Transport Scotland has made of which services will no longer be available to passengers at times when ticket offices are proposed to be closed, in light of ScotRail's consultation on the matter.
Answer
Transport Scotland has not undertaken any assessment however Abellio ScotRail has carried out an assessment of all ticket sales, passenger assistance, ticket buying facilities, waiting areas, toilets, passenger footfall, links to local schools, colleges and businesses for every station with a ticket office. In addition, Abellio ScotRail also reviewed any instances of anti-social behaviour to ensure the proposed changes do not reduce the customer experience.
Abellio ScotRail has also confirmed that no job loses would occur and any change to opening times would be redeployed in the local area to ensure customers were better supported by having staff more visible and on the frontline.
- Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions its or Transport Scotland's officials had with representatives of Abellio ScotRail regarding its proposals to change ticket office opening hours, and on what dates these discussions took place.
Answer
Following Abellio ScotRail’s notification on 13 July 2021 of their intention to undertake a review of ticket office opening hours under Schedule 17 of the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement, discussions concerning this consultation were held in the normal course of franchise management business.
- Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it anticipates any changes to ticket office opening hours being implemented prior to 1 April 2022, in light of ScotRail's consultation on the matter.
Answer
Abellio ScotRail has advised that following consultation process, Transport Focus will analyse the results and compile a report. The report outputs will then be considered before any final decisions are reached.
- Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the proposed closure and reduction in opening hours of rail ticket offices will increase or decrease levels of (a) antisocial behaviour and (b) safety for (i) passengers and (ii) staff (A) at train stations and (B) on trains.
Answer
Abellio ScotRail has carried out an assessment of all ticket sales, passenger assistance, ticket buying facilities, waiting areas, toilets, passenger footfall, links to local schools, colleges and businesses for every station with a ticket office. In addition, Abellio ScotRail also reviewed any instances of anti-social behaviour to ensure the proposed changes would reduce anti-social behaviour, offer passengers more staff visible in the frontline, both in stations and on train whilst improving revenue collection.
Abellio ScotRail has also confirmed that no job loses would occur and any change to opening times would see every minute reused in the local area.
- Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many trade union representatives will be on the board of the new company that will run Scotland's Railway.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05865 on 4 February 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether its or Transport Scotland’s permission was required for Abellio ScotRail to consult on changes to its ticket office opening hours.
Answer
The ticket office review is being conducted under existing rail industry processes – Schedule 17 of the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement – and as such permission was not required from Transport Scotland before Abellio ScotRail, the train operating company, consulted on ticket office opening hours.
- Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it or Transport Scotland has made of the potential impact of Abellio ScotRail’s proposals to reduce ticket office opening hours on passenger numbers.
Answer
Abellio ScotRail as the train operating company providing passenger rail services, is responsible for the ticket office consultation.
Transport Focus, the independent watchdog for transport users, will collate and provide a report on the consultation responses.
- Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether the proposed closure and reduction in opening hours of rail ticket offices has been the subject of an Equality Impact Assessment, and, if so, what the outcome was.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05834 on 4 February 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 4 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has a strategic transition plan from Scottish-generated nuclear energy to renewables, and, if so, whether it will publish this.
Answer
The Scottish Government is developing an Energy Strategy & Just Transition Plan which will be published in 2022. This document will serve as a plan to transition from today’s energy sector to an new, net-zero sector which meets the 2030 and 2045 climate targets in a fair and just way for all of Scotland.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 4 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has reallocated £45 million from the health budget to the Business Support Fund, and, if so, from which part of the health budget this contribution was taken.
Answer
The Scottish Government had expected to receive £120 million of additional Health consequential funding in respect of additional allocations to the UK Department of Health and Social Care for testing and vaccination costs.
Whilst we have yet to see the final consequential breakdown for UK Supplementary Estimates, indications were in December that this figure was revised down to £75m.
Rather than a reallocation of £45 million within Scottish Budgets to support business, this figure actually represents the shortfall in Health funding against previous expectations – a reduction of £45 million.
However the financial position has moved considerably since then and full details of all budget transfers supporting the recently announced measures will be set out in the forthcoming Spring Budget Revision.