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Transport Scotland’s Operating Company for the A83, BEAR Scotland, has recently carried out surveys on the road during very heavy rain conditions. During the severe weather event of 6th to 8th of October 2023, both Council maintained and Trunk roads were affected by landslides as well as localised flooding however there is no evidence to suggest the A83 is regularly restricted to single file traffic for any significant lengths of time. BEAR Scotland will continue to manage and maintain the A83 in accordance with Transport Scotland’s robust maintenance contracts.

This section of the A83, in common with the rest of the trunk road network, is subject to a variety of inspections and surveys. Weekly safety inspections are carried out to identify defects that represent an immediate hazard, which are then required to be repaired within specified timescales.

In some cases where no designed drainage system exists this will be considered as an improvement or vulnerable location scheme and prioritised accordingly. Interventions may include enhanced management and maintenance to physical intervention being carried out when funding is approved by Transport Scotland.

Cyclic maintenance is also undertaken annually to ensure that all drainage assets on the trunk road are clean and functioning to their maximum capacity. This includes cleaning gullies and manholes, re-cutting grips and jetting piped grips annually and harrowing filter drain material every three years.

As set out in the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Ministers will specify the standards of the Single Building Assessment. Following a robust tendering process, we have appointed an independent contractor to develop an end-to-end Single Building Assessment. The specification will be informed by stakeholder engagement as well as drawing on experience from the pilot phase of the Cladding Remediation Programme.

CalMac Ferries Limited are unable to provide the information requested as the data is not held in this format. CalMac do not measure vessels outage in days, as many technical issues are resolved in a number of hours.

I have provided reference to a previous Parliamentary Question S6W-15774 on 29 March 2023 with accompanying Bib number 64075, showing all weather related cancellation per vessel for the last 10 years. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Isle of Skye remains one of Scotland’s most popular tourist destinations. The increase in traffic over the Skye Bridge, which is part of the A87 trunk road, is reflective of its continuing popularity and as a route for those travelling to the Western Isles and to the Island of Raasay by ferry.

This government recognises that increased traffic also creates challenges. That is why, along with maintaining and ensuring resilience of the trunk road, we are upgrading the A87/A855 junction in Portree. This aims to improve safety for all road users, with work due to commence in this financial year. More widely we are investing approximately £4.65 million in 2023-24 on maintaining the A87 trunk road, which includes the section from the Skye Bridge to the port of Uig.

Longer term, the second Strategic Transport Projects Review recommends that investment on the A87 and wider trunk road network is targeted at maintaining a network of roads which are safe, resilient and adapted to deal with the impacts of climate change.

Improvement to local roads and transport infrastructure remain the responsibility of the Highland Council.

The responsibility for the balancing of grid lies with the National Grid Electricity System Operator and wider system integration costs are set by the regulator, Ofgem. This data is not held by the Scottish Government.

Although the Scottish Government has not made an assessment of this, evidence from the Climate Change Committee suggests that integration costs could be around £10- 25/MWh for systems with up to 50-65% renewables but could increase further at higher penetrations. However, as the Committee on Climate Change note, it is challenging to estimate system integration costs and extensive assumptions are required to do so. Estimates of system integration costs are largely reliant on modelling. More details can be found here: Technical-Annex-Integrating-variable-renewables-into-the-UK-electricity-system.pdf (theccc.org.uk) .

As of January 2024:

• 25 Single Building Assessments have commenced. This includes one development where the Fire Risk Assessment of the External Wall (FRAEW) has been completed and the development remediated.
• 3 where an SBA has not yet been commissioned but pre-assessment discussions have been held with factors and agreement secured that an SBA will be commenced through the direct procurement pathway.

This is an operational matter for ScotRail. The member may wish to contact ScotRail directly.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-24748 on 2 February 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Transport Scotland audits ScotRail under the Service Quality Inspection Regime (SQUIRe). The SQUIRe inspectors undertake sample inspections, including checking cleanliness of the trains and stations.

The SQUIRE regime is one of the toughest performance regimes in the UK with many of the target levels set at 90% or higher. ScotRail is required to address any issues identified during inspections as quickly as possible. This regime makes it possible for ScotRail to achieve one of the highest independent passenger satisfaction survey results amongst UK train operators.

We know that safety of passengers and staff alike is a number one priority for ScotRail.

Network Rail has an overall responsibility of the Scottish rail network infrastructure and Office of Rail and Road (ORR) holds Network Rail to account for the delivery of its obligations.

ORR publishes its quarterly and periodic (4-weekly) statistics on punctuality, reliability and causes of delay for passenger trains operating on the mainline network in Great Britain on its website: Passenger rail performance | ORR Data Portal .

Transport Focus carries out passenger satisfaction surveys on behalf of all train operating companies on the GB Rail network. In the last survey published in September 2023, ScotRail achieved one of the highest independent passenger satisfaction survey results amongst UK train operators, at 91%. This is a 2% increase from its previous score of 89% between December 2022 and March 2023.

It also represents a 1% increase in overall satisfaction with ScotRail since it came into public ownership.