Seòmar agus comataidhean

In my Statement to Parliament I announced a policy review to identify and consider the legal, policy and financial implications relevant to the procurement of ferry services. I made clear that we could not pre-judge the outcome of that review. If the Teckal exemption applies, if the approach complies with state-aid rules and, crucially, if communities agree, then the Government is minded to make a direct award to an in-house provider in respect of ferry services.

Railway services operate in a different legal context – a specific, largely reserved legal framework, primarily governed by the Railways Act 1993. In 2016, the 1993 Act was amended to lift the prohibition on public sector bodies bidding for rail franchises in Scotland. The Scottish Government has initiated work with relevant stakeholders to consider the potential suitability of various parts of the public sector to bid for a rail franchise. Any such bid would be subject to relevant public procurement requirements and would be in competition with any private sector bids that came forward. The Scottish Ministers, as franchising authority, would evaluate all such bids fairly and properly, in accordance with those requirements. On railway infrastructure, I continue to press the UK Government to provide greater operational devolution of Network Rail functions to Scotland to ensure that our rail industry is better placed to deliver the best possible outcomes for passengers.

The Scottish Government does not purchase vessels for Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd procures vessels for use by CalMac Ferries Ltd on the Clyde and Hebrides ferry network. The requirements, and abilities, of the vessels are specified by the operator.

The Scottish Government provides loans to Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd for this purpose which are repaid over a 25 year period.

In Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd’s most recent procurement process they advertised the design and build contract for the 100 metre vessels in the Official Journal of the European Community (OJEC) on 15 October 2014. The contract was awarded to Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd on 16 October 2015.

In this case a 2 stage restricted procurement process was used, the first stage restricting the number of tenderers to 6. The second stage required the tenderers to submit 22 separate documents covering technical, commercial and contractual matters relating to the vessels. These documents were used to assess the shipyard’s tenders using a predetermined scoring matrix that was made available to the shipyards and described in detail in a Tender Instructions document.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-06959 on 22 February 2017. 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 ferry services procurement policy review will consider in detail the legal, policy and financial implications relevant to the procurement of ferry services in the future. This will include consideration of whether it is possible to make a direct award to an in-house provider. However, as I made clear during the statement on 2 February, we cannot pre-judge the outcome of the review.

There will be no impact on work to improve access to (a) stations or (b) trains by applying the financial penalties held within the SQUIRE Investment Funds to the ScotRail fares initiative. £834,000 from the Investment Fund has already been allocated for station and rolling stock improvements. As there are not currently any initiatives or projects at the developmental stage to require funding, the balance of the fund, £2.06million, is currently unallocated.

The Franchise Agreement specifically states that such funds be directed towards "qualitative respects of the Franchise Services". Use of a proportion of these funds to the benefit of Scotrails valued, existing passenger base falls within the remit of the contract.

On 1 April 2016, mental health services in Tayside became fully devolved and delegated to each of its three Health and Social Care Partnerships for Angus, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross, with the latter being responsible for the delivery of all acute and in-patient mental health services on a hosted basis.

NHS Tayside is working in partnership with its Health and Social Care Partnerships to complete the Tayside Mental Health Service Redesign Transformation Programme to ensure that sustainable mental health services, based upon patient safety and improving quality of care, is in place across Tayside. The plan is expected to be completed shortly and will be subject to full stakeholder consultation. This will include consideration of the future of the Mulberry Unit in the provision of longer term health services within Tayside.

Scottish Ministers were made aware on 12 January 2017 that a contingency plan was to be implemented in the near future to ensure that patient safety and safe and effective inpatient and crisis assessment services are in place across Tayside, resulting in the closure of the Mulberry Unit, on a temporary basis.

We are committed to the largest road investment programme that Scotland has ever seen. By the end of this financial year (2016-17), we will have spent over £8 billion on our Motorways and Trunk Road Network since 2007, to ensure the strategic road network is safe, available for use, efficient, well maintained and allows effective movement of people, goods and services around and to and from Scotland.

Many of our projects include necessary improvements to roads that become the responsibility of the Local Authority on completion of the scheme. The spend on these roads is not captured separately and is included in the overall investment for the project.

On-Going Schemes

Since 2007, the Scottish Government has invested in a number of major roads projects, including:

In addition, the Scottish Government continues to progress the design and development of a number of schemes including the A90/A937 Laurencekirk Junction Improvement (Aberdeenshire) and the A90/A96 Haudagain Junction Improvement (Aberdeen City).

A breakdown by road and local authority area is not possible for incomplete schemes as some of the investments are of a national nature (e.g. Forth Replacement Crossing) and others span a number of local authority areas. However, analysis of spend by year, since 2007-08 can be seen in the following table. 

Figures from 2011-12 onwards exclude Cost of Capital which was abolished. Cost of Capital Figures from 2007-08 to 2010-11 are £517.8m, £546.5m, £595.5m and £649.1m respectively.

[1] Figures taken from respective January Scottish Budget Bills.

Completed Schemes

The Scottish Government believes that the case for devolution is clear and has been set out in various reports, reviews and studies over recent years, including the Shaw Review and the more recent Reform Scotland report. The £100 million figure is informed by the overall scale of Network Rail’s funding and expenditure in Scotland – some £4.7 billion in the current CP5 control period. The opportunities for efficiencies will clearly be dependent on any model agreed, but include avoiding further unnecessary cost increases on major projects; reducing contributions to significant Network Rail corporate overheads; avoiding future contamination of higher costs from Network Rail’s poor financial and delivery performance in England; and further synergies in the management and development of the infrastructure of Network Rail and the operations and rolling stock of ScotRail.

In December 2016, the Scottish Government announced a £3 million fares initiative for 2017, which will include a free week of travel for monthly and annual Season ticket holders. Scottish Government officials agreed with ScotRail Alliance representatives the associated operational requirements and financial impacts, prior to its announcement by Derek Mackay MSP (Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Constitution) on 15 December 2016. In terms of budget implications, the funding will be provided by both Transport Scotland and ScotRail, with the majority of the costs likely to be met between April 2017 and March 2018.