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The terms of the competition allowed participants to put forward proposals for amendments to the draft contract for consideration by Transport Scotland, before the final tender documents were issued. Both participants suggested changes up to this point, some of which were rejected by Transport Scotland and therefore not reflected in the invitation to submit final tender documentation.

Serco Caledonian Ferries Ltd’s. Tender is commercially confidential. Their final tender contained numerous amendments which sought to alter the economic balance of the contract, including changes to the risk-reward mechanism. Their final tender was deemed non-compliant under paragraph 1.1.3 in the Invitation to Submit Final Tender: Volume 2: Instructions to Participants.

Transport Scotland wrote to Serco Caledonian Ferries Ltd on 28 January 2016 following a meeting on 25 January 2016 to discuss their interim tender. This advised them of non-compliant elements which they subsequently addressed in their final tender, however, their final tender had new non-compliant elements. I refer the member to the answers to questions S5W-00318 on 8 June 2016 and S5W-00679 on 21 June 2016.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Contractor, Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors’, has now advised us that they are unable to achieve the planned early opening date of December 2016. I provided a full statement to Parliament on this matter on 8 June 2016.

Adverse weather affects construction activities in different ways ranging from the need to alter a method of work to completely cancelling a piece of work. Consequently, it is not possible to list every date where adverse weather conditions have affected the construction on the Forth Replacement Crossing. However, the contractor estimates that approximately 20% of the project programme has been impacted.

Referring to my statement on 8 June 2016, the dates on which adverse weather conditions affecting construction during April and May 2016 are the dates on which wind gusts exceeded the threshold to allow critical path activities to take place. These are as follows:

April reporting period:

26 and 27 March (2 days)

28 March (0.5 days)

4, 6, 11, 12, 17, 18, 24, 25 and 29 (9 days)

1, 5 and 26 April (3 x 0.5 days)

April Report Total = 13 days

May reporting period:

2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 20 (9 days)

5, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26 (6 x 0.5 days)

May report total = 12 days

The contractor’s reporting period cuts off on the last Friday of the month and so for the April reporting period the 13 days lost were in the period 26 March to 29 April and the 12 days in May were lost in the period 30 April to 27 May 2016.

There are no plans for the Expert Ferry Group to discuss the service specification for the forthcoming Northern Isles ferry services contract. A comprehensive study to inform the specification of the next Northern Isles ferry services contract is underway. This study is being overseen by a working group of key stakeholders, including Orkney and Shetland Islands Councils, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, The Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership and ZetTrans. A public consultation took place earlier this year, with a further round of consultation planned later in summer 2016.

Copies of the published tariff scheme for the Northern Isles ferry service, operated by Serco NorthLink Ferries, for each of the contract years since 2012, is available from the Scottish Parliament information centre (Bib. number 57981).

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-00315 on 13 June 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Guidance on providing equipment to children and young people with disabilities was issued to all Chief Executive Officers in Scotland in March 2015. The guidance provides advice to health boards and local authorities on their statutory responsibilities in relation to the provision of equipment to meet the identified wellbeing needs of disabled children and young people in the community. This advice will support practice that is compatible with Getting it right for every child and the statutory duties that will commence under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

Serco Caledonian Ferries Ltd bid sought changes to the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract. These changes were deemed non-compliant by Transport Scotland as set out in the Invitation to Submit Final Tender: Volume 2: Instructions to Participants, published on Transport Scotland’s website.