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The final subsidy for all Caledonian Sleeper services for the financial year 2024-25 will be known when the accounts for this year have been finalised and published.

The Scottish Government is considering all sensible alternative fuel options for the development of the Scottish rail network.

Legislation surrounding the use of e-bikes and e-Scooters is a reserved matter for the UK Government.

For an e-bike to be legal for use in the UK, they must be electrically assisted pedal cycles and the electric motor should not be able to propel the bike when it’s travelling more than 15.5mph. This ensures speeds similar to that of other bicycles.

In Scotland, it is illegal to ride an e-scooter on a public road, pavement, cycle paths, shared paths or any public place. It is lawful to use e-scooters on private land with the landowners permission. The previous UK Government had intended to bring forward legislation to fully legalise e-scooters in 2022, however this was paused due to a change of Prime Minister and a Cabinet reshuffle.

As such, electric scooters are covered by the same UK-wide laws and regulations that apply to all motor vehicles. It is every road and path users responsibility to respect others and the Highway Code outlines both rules and guidance for everyone.

Maintaining provision of free and reduced cost travel facilities for rail staff was included in the original rail privatisation legislation.

The Member may wish to contact ScotRail directly for more details.

The Caledonian Sleeper services make a significant positive contribution to Scotland’s businesses, economy, communities and tourist offer, providing vital, low carbon connections to and from London. Demand for Caledonian Sleeper services continues to grow and the Scottish Government will continue to support these services.

The Scottish Government regularly meets with Scottish Renewables to discuss a wide range of matters related to renewable energy. On 4 December 2024, I met Claire Mack, the Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables, to discuss the broad parameters of the draft Scottish Budget 2025-26 in relation to offshore wind and wider renewables.

This is a matter for ScotRail as the employer. The Member may wish to contact ScotRail directly.

This is a matter for Scottish Rail Holdings (SRH), who oversees the delivery of Caledonian Sleeper services on behalf of Scottish Ministers. The Member may wish to contact SRH directly. Since coming into public ownership in June 2023, Caledonian Sleepers right time arrivals have improved to over 88%. This is well above the GB average.

There has been no change to the scope of the Aberdeen Central Belt Service Improvements Project.

As regards project timelines, in January 2024, Ms McAllan, then Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition informed the Net Zero, Energy and Transport committee, that the time over which the commitment to deliver journey time improvements and increase capacity, between Aberdeen and the Central Belt, was under review. This remains the position.

As transactions with a value of under £40,000 are not liable to make an LBTT return, this information is not held.