Chamber and committees

Investigation of potential fixed link connections (bridges, causeways and/or tunnels) between Mull and the Scottish mainland forms part of STPR2 recommendation 41. Details on why a fixed link to Mull is part of this recommendation can be accessed at: https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/52545/recommendation-41-potential-sound-of-harris-sound-of-barra-fixed-link-and-fixed-link-between-mull-and-scottish-mainland.pdf

The STPR2 recommendation notes, that further work is undertaken on business cases to better understand the benefits, costs and challenges associated with these options. These studies would further consider the feasibility of improving island connectivity through additional fixed links by replacing existing ferry services currently delivered by CalMac Ferries Ltd as part of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) contract.

These studies would also analyse in further detail the potential long term savings associated with the public sector funding required to maintain the ferry services and would involve input from communities that may potentially be affected.

The efficacy of the University Innovation Fund (UIF) has been monitored by the Scottish Funding Council through the submission of annual progress reports, managed through the SFC Outcome Agreement process. The SFC Knowledge Exchange metric return and HESA Higher Education and Business Interaction survey has also been used as indicators of performance against knowledge exchange activity metrics, with the latest data indicating that the UIF has enabled at least 24,000 interactions with Scottish businesses and helped generate KE&I income of over £755M. (SFC KE metric return 22-23.)

Funding allocations for individual universities for each academic year are managed through the SFC. Allocations are made publicly available on the SFC’s website, accessible here: University Indicative Funding Allocations 2024-25 - Scottish Funding Council (sfc.ac.uk)

The Scottish Government, through the Scottish Funding Council, has invested over £120mil in the University Innovation Fund since 2016 to support universities to work collaboratively to exploit their research to improve Scotland’s economy. Funding allocations for universities for each academic year are managed through the Scottish Funding Council and made publicly available on the SFC’s website, accessible here: University Indicative Funding Allocations 2024-25 - Scottish Funding Council (sfc.ac.uk)

The University Innovation Fund is one of the Scottish Funding Council’s core grants designed to support research and knowledge exchange activity across all institutions and is allocated according to a formula developed in consultation with the sector. Therefore Scotland’s 19 universities have received funding each academic year since 2016-17 through the UIF. Individual funding allocations for universities for each academic year are managed through the Scottish Funding Council and made publicly available on the SFC’s website, accessible here: University Indicative Funding Allocations 2024-25 - Scottish Funding Council (sfc.ac.uk)

STPR2 (Recommendation 41) recommends that further study work to better understand the benefits, costs and challenges associated with a Sound of Harris fixed link, a Sound of Barra fixed link and a fixed link between Mull and the Scottish mainland is undertaken.

There are currently no plans to revisit any of the fixed link options that did not make it to final consideration during the STPR2 appraisal process. The reason why a particular option did not progress can be found in Appendix G of the Final Technical Report .

The BT Subsea Team has confirmed that there have been no recorded faults or repairs required to the R100 subsea cables to Scottish islands since deployment in 2022.

The number of premises that are either due to be delivered or have been delivered on the 15 islands that have had new subsea cables installed as part of the Scottish Government’s £600 million R100 contracts are in the following table.

Our 110,000 affordable homes target includes that “at least” 10% of those homes will be delivered in rural and island areas. We allocate Affordable Housing Supply Programme funding to local authority areas based on our Strategic Housing Investment Framework agreed with COSLA in 2012. Local authorities then prioritise the use of this funding as outlined in their Strategic Housing Investment Plans. This includes the size, tenure and location of homes.

We are investing in rural and island areas through both our mainstream Affordable Housing Supply Programme as well as demand-led funds including the Rural and Island Housing Fund and the Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund which are part of our approach to addressing the specific housing issues that rural and island areas face. From 2016-2017 to 2022-23 we have supported the delivery of 10,094 affordable homes in rural and island areas. This accounted for 16% of homes delivered over this time period.

We will invest nearly £600m in affordable homes this year including our demand-led Rural and Islands Housing Fund and Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund.

Transport Scotland conducts machine-based based surveys using specialist vehicles each year to gather information on the surface integrity of the road; the friction characteristics of the surface; and the structural capacity (strength) of the underlying road construction. This provides an annual snapshot of the changing road condition across the network, which is supplemented with a series of targeted inspections completed under the term maintenance contract to obtain specific information about the road asset.

The combined information is used as part of an annual cycle to determine maintenance programmes and investment requirements. This annual process results in the production of a 3-year Programme, which is reviewed and refined in light of available funding until a final programme is determined.

A copy of the latest three-year programme can be found in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 65070) and it sets out the works that are currently proposed for delivery over the three period from April 2024 until March 2027. The works are listed by road/route and the Section References are provided but the data is not available grouped by local authority area. Delivery of these works is subject to the availability of funding and operational constraints.

Longer term the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2), published in December 2022, notes that investing in the Trunk Road and Motorway network is important in order to improve safety and resilience of the network for the communities and businesses of Scotland. STPR2 recommendations for strategic roads focus on safety, climate change adaptation and resilience. For safety improvements these will be a primary, but not exclusive, focused on rural sections.