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Noise mitigation measures do not form part of the current scope of works being undertaken at Charing Cross.

Glasgow City Council are currently constructing an active travel scheme to install cycle lanes at Charing Cross and along St George’s Road. Therefore, as the area around Charing Cross is changing substantially, it is our intention to undertake noise monitoring in the area on completion of these works to ensure that any noise mitigation works implemented in the future work effectively following these major works.

Transport Scotland is committed to ensuring noise management is included in all their activities and responsibilities, including the work being undertaken on the M8 at Charing Cross. Transport Scotland has also been working closely with Glasgow City Council on providing noise management advice to the Future of the M8 Motion, and related schemes.

The Scottish Government intends to update the School Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967.

Given the previous consultation exercise took place in 2017-18, we must now consider the updated context that the regulations will exist in.

We are now taking this work forward and will re-consult on the Regulations in due course.

IT system faults are unplanned events of a technical nature that result in an IT system that is required to operate the public charging network becoming inoperable or unable to work as intended. Downtime is a period of time when an affected IT system is inoperable or working sub-optimally due to a fault. This does not include planned downtime, for example, as part of routine systems maintenance.

IT system downtime does not necessarily mean that the charging infrastructure itself was affected or that drivers could not get the charge they needed. Most IT system faults that arise on the Charge Place Scotland network are resolved quickly and do not impact the majority of users.

Total Percentage ‘IT systems’ downtime:

• 2022: 3.5 hrs – 0.04% downtime = 99.96% uptime
• 2023: 13 hrs – 0.15% downtime = 99.85% uptime
• 2024: 53 hrs – 0.6% downtime = 99.4% uptime

Breakdown of ‘IT system’ faults over last 3 years:

• 2 December 2021 Downtime: 1 hour

Systems affected: Third party SIM card supplier’s system – A data centre shut down for maintenance. This caused the system to go down for 1 hour but the system defaulted to ‘any card’ mode which allowed drivers to continue using the network with minimal impact.

• 26 January 2022 Downtime: unavailable

Systems affected: Network wide outage caused by load balancing issues. Resulted in temporary communication issues between the network and the back office. Drivers still able to charge throughout this event.

• 13 May 2022 Downtime: Unavailable, but noted that fault arose on a Friday and was fully resolved by the Monday.

Systems affected: CPS website map. Status pins freezing and not updating.

• 26 May 2022 Downtime: unavailable

Systems affected: reoccurrence of map app issue noted above

• 8 June 2022 Downtime: 1 day

Systems affected: Third party SIM card supplier’s system – data centre shut down for maintenance as before (Dec 2021).

• 1 and 2 August 2022 Downtime: Below 1 hour

Systems affected : Third party data centre issue caused back office and website interruptions around 11pm. The issue originating at a data centre in London and impacted multiple customers across the whole sector, not just CPS.

• 18 September 2022 Downtime: 4 hours

Systems affected: eConnect issue – some drivers unable to start a charge with RFID cards. However, other access methods remained available to start/stop charges, such as the mobile app, webpay and contactless pay.

• 1 December 2022 Downtime : 2 hours 25 minutes

Systems affected: network issue resulting in the loss of RFID authentication for some drivers. However, other access methods remained available to start/stop charges, such as the mobile app, webpay and contactless pay.

• 14 December 2022 Downtime: 1 hour

Systems affected: DNS Certificate not approved – affected access to web application and driver accounts. Fixed by renewing certificates.

• 20 January 2023 Downtime: 4 hours

Systems affected: Network connectivity – Third party SIM card issue which affected multiple businesses/services not just the CPS network.

• 18 February 2023 Downtime: 07:13 – 09:15 – 2 hours

Systems affected: Live map/website certification affecting access.

Did not impact the network access in any way.

• 14 July 2023 Downtime: 6 hours 32 minutes

Systems affected: Software vulnerability resulting in the website being taken down until resolved. Network still fully functioned, no impact on driver experience.

• 26 September 2023 Downtime: 1 hour

Systems affected: Password reset for drivers on Econnect system. This resulted in high demand for access to the website. Development team placed the CPS website into ‘maintenance mode’ to allow them to investigate and implement a fix for the performance issue. No impact on charging sessions or connectivity between CPS & charge points

• 2 March 2024 to 12 March 2024 Downtime: Unavailable

Systems affected: webpage error relating to Google Maps. CPS live map not allowing a search of charge points to take place.

• 9 April 2024 – 14 April 2024 Downtime: Unavailable

Systems affected: Server error caused by too many drivers logging into their account simultaneously to effect a change. Caused the server to run slowly or show an error message. Did not impact network utilisation using any method of starting a charge.

• 3 May 2024 Downtime: Unavailable

Systems affected: Customer billing system. Did not result in ‘downtime’, some customers issued invoices with errors due to systems fault.

• 8 May 2024 Downtime: 9 hours 14 minutes

Systems affected: Outage at a third party data centre. Temporarily affected information stored in the CPS customer database. Did not affect the operation of the charge point infrastructure itself and it did not prevent users from accessing the network using either their RFID or other payment methods.

• 26 June 2024 Downtime: 2– 3 hours

Systems affected: Third party SIM card supplier’s system. Some drivers had issues starting and stopping sessions via the mobile app, although other access methods continued to work as normal.

• 30 June 2024 Downtime: Unavailable

Systems affected: Econnect. Some drivers unable to access their online account but this would not stop them from starting or stopping a charge session via the app or RFID card.

• 12 July 2024 Downtime: 13 hours

Systems affected: Third party supplier server outage. Some drivers unable to start/stop a charge using the mobile app. Affected some RFIDs. Those drivers continued to access via webpay, contactless (where available) and by remote starts by the contact centre. Minimal impact on drivers ability to get a charge.

• 22 July 2024 Downtime: 15 minutes

Systems affected. Telephony. CPS staff unable to answer calls.

This did not impact the network utilisation using any method of starting a charge.

• 10 & 11 August 2024 Downtime : 28 hours

Systems affected: network wide performance issue with intra-system communications dropping out unexpectedly, resulting in back office systems working at a reduced capacity.

The capital funding position remains challenging and infrastructure projects remain under review. The Scottish Government is assessing the full implications of the UK Autumn Budget and also await the outcome of the UK Government’s Spending Review in 2025. Full consideration will be given as to which projects are affordable and deliverable and can be included within our revised infrastructure investment plan pipeline.

We are working with all health boards to develop a whole-system NHS infrastructure plan which will reflect needs across Scotland and support continued safe operation of existing facilities, as well as determination of longer term investment priorities.

The legal powers to mandate the reporting of pay gaps is largely reserved to the UK Parliament and is currently limited to the reporting of gender pay gaps under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. There is no requirement for data to be disaggregated or collected to the level of parental status and Scottish Ministers have no plans to expand pay gap reporting in this way.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Decisions on Local Government budget allocations for future years are subject to the outcome of negotiations with COSLA, the results of which will be confirmed in future Scottish Budgets.

Furthermore, although it is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage and maintain their school estate, East Dunbartonshire Council will receive significant funding support from the Scottish Government - through the £2bn Learning Estate Investment Programme - for their Lenzie Academy project.

As part of their statutory responsibilities in relation to home to school transport local authorities are also required by the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 to have regard to the safety of pupils.

Where local authorities conclude a route used by pupils to walk to school is unsafe transport should be provided even though the distance falls short of their normal distance criteria. Existing guidance sets out that Ministers expect local authorities to keep their criteria for providing school transport under review and be flexible enough to take into account factors, relative to the nature of the route, which might affect pupil safety.

The Cabinet Secretary for Transport, the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity and I have commissioned an update to the Scottish Government’s school transport guidance for local authorities to provide further clarity on our expectations in relation to safety.

The statutory minimum walking distances set out in legislation are a long-standing feature of our education system and there are no plans to change them. The Scottish Government published guidance for local authorities regarding home to school transport in 2021.

Officials have met with education leads in the local authorities expecting to be most affected to understand their assessment of the potential move of pupils to the state sector. We have also sought assurance from local authorities that they have the capacity to support pupils in the event of an independent school closing. I have met with the Scottish Council for Independent Schools and officials will continue to engage with them directly, following this policy change from the UK Government.

The usual timing of the annual implementation of changes to ferry fares has been consistent for many years and is defined in the Northern Isles Ferry Services (NIFS) contract as January and the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) contracts as the start of CHFS summer timetable.

Ofqual regulates qualifications, examinations and assessments in England. Its findings relate to the SQA Level 1 Health and Safety in a Construction Environment qualification delivered in England which was withdrawn by SQA in April 2019.

SQA is an executive Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), established under the Education (Scotland) Act 1996. As a NDPB, SQA is responsible for making its own operational decisions. I have asked the SQA to write to Mr Rennie setting out the measures taken and communications with stakeholders related to the undertaking.