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I will unpack some of the points that you made, but you have probably conflated different issues. I have made it clear that Inverness to Nairn, including the Nairn bypass, was always treated as separate from the rest of the A96 review. The A96 review is subject to pre-election guidance, but I am keen for it to be published when we can do so, to inform interests in that area.

On the Inverness to Nairn upgrade, including a Nairn bypass, work on procurement continues, so I can talk about that. As I said in the meeting on Friday night—people there were very engaged; they are quite rightly impassioned about what they want to see—there is not a pause on that; indeed, the made orders that were published on 12 March have not been challenged. We as a Government are therefore in the position now to proceed to the purchase of land to develop that part of the route. I have also said that, in the next few weeks, we should be able to announce the made orders for the Inshes to Smithton road connection, which is complementary to that route.

I went to Nairn as it was important that I heard what locals were saying. The event was well organised by The Inverness Courier and was well attended. It was also extremely well chaired, and we covered a lot of ground.

In relation to suggestions about how the work can progress, it is clear that we are now in the procurement phase; we will be able to develop the purchase of the land, and then the work will move into procurement. The contract is quite large, and it is a challenge in relation to the available finances.

An important point that I took from the meeting was about giving priority to the Nairn bypass part of the Inverness to Nairn route. There was a strong feeling that work on that should start first. There are different reasons as to whether that can and should happen, but it was important to hear what people said.

I am very familiar with Nairn—I have holidayed there frequently. I was meant to be there during storm Babet and, unfortunately, I did not manage to get there then. It is interesting because it has the road going right through it. It was clear from the meeting that, because of the delays and issues there, there was a real strength of feeling that the bypass part of the route, which is a big contract, should be first. The issue is then whether to break up the contract or have one big contract. I hope that that is the next stage of thinking about procurement. It was helpful to hear what people were saying.

I am sorry that you missed the meeting, convener. I am surprised that you waited until I had left before you arrived, but I am sure that there were good reasons why you could not be there.

We anticipate that there will be £65 million to invest in this area in terms of that partnership with the private sector. Reflecting on those figures from the Scottish Futures Trust, private sector investment in this area has almost doubled from last year to this year. On what the trajectory will look like in terms of ramping up the numbers, it will be an acceleration. You can see that, and that is what we need to do. Having reflected on the discussion that I just had with Climate Change Committee members, I am as keen as they are to make sure that, geographically, Scotland’s needs are met through where the charging points are positioned; it is not just about volume.

On the technology changes that are happening, I was in Haddington just the other week, and BT has been working on the green furniture that it has, which was previously used for its transmission. The more that it is doing stuff in terms of the fibre-to-properties, the more the green boxes are becoming redundant in that respect. Haddington was the first place in the whole of the UK where BT piloted the use of that green box for power. Interestingly, it was on the edge of a council scheme with fields beside it, where people did not have their own driveway that they could charge their vehicle on. Obviously, we do not want people having to drive from the periphery of a town into the centre for charging if they do not have domestic charging.

Again, that is about innovation in technology. Also, BT chose Scotland because we are seen as good partners in that regard. If that approach can be expanded and rolled out elsewhere, that technological change will also provide more accessibility, because on-street charging can be a challenge in particular areas, so I thought that that was quite a good innovation.

You are right that the roll-out will be tough but the ramping up is happening and I know from looking at the plans from my local authority that it is keen to work with the private sector to roll out EV chargers so that the available choices for people can grow, as can their confidence in using the chargers.

I will need to be careful about what I say. Let us await the publication of the A96 review. However, on priorities within that, I think that any town that has a trunk road that is a major artery going through it has to be a priority. I will leave it as vague as that, but I absolutely agree that the Elgin bypass should be a priority. I will probably leave it at that, if that is okay.

I agree that the A83 is a key artery, particularly to Argyll and Bute, and it is important for the local community, businesses and tourism. You may be aware that there is an A83 Rest and Be Thankful task force, and I recently chaired its meeting in Arrochar on 22 May. I also visited the A83 and the old military road to see the progress of the different stages of the solution.

There is an informative communications vehicle—a website—from Transport Scotland, whose link we can forward to you. All the stakeholders, businesses and local councillors are involved in the task force. They are making sure that everybody is kept informed on progress. We have had very good presentations from the contractors that are going to be delivering the solutions.

There are short, medium and long-term solutions. The long-term preferred route option of the Glen Croe valley was announced in June last year. That is progressing well, and there have been exhibitions in local communities to show what will be involved in the proposed debris flow shelter.

At the same time, improvements are being made to the existing old military road. When diversions are required while the longer-term solution is being developed and built, that road will be in an improved state.

I was probably the only person who was wetter than the Prime Minister on 22 May, when I was looking at the developments and improvements, particularly on the south approach. There will also be a widening of that, which is required to help. It is also important to signal to broadcasters in particular that the A83 is not closed when the old military road is being used; it is a diversion using the old military road. That was a key message from the task force. It wanted to make sure that, when there has to be a diversion, people can still use the A83, but we are diverting them via the old military road for that difficult and problematic area, where we have had some pretty horrendous landslips and so on.

I will start by saying that ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper are among the top-performing train operators in the UK. They rank sixth and seventh, out of 23 operators, on public performance measures. However, as you rightly identified, ScotRail is not reaching our expected levels of performance. Although it is performing well, you are correct to identify that issues that people attribute to ScotRail because its trains have been cancelled or delayed can, in the vast majority of cases, be attributed to work that has been conducted by Network Rail.

The work that Network Rail does is important: we want to make sure that we have a safe railway. We also need to recognise that we have had 11 named storms since last autumn, which has had particular impacts on our railways. One of the major achievements that we have delivered over the past year is finalisation of the work on control period 7—on which a lot of people have done a lot of work, and which will include investment of £4.2 billion—and on the high-level output specification for Network Rail, which will include mitigation and adaptation for climate change. Obviously, sodden ground can have impacts, as we know.

You asked how we can drive up performance collectively. I will be meeting the new managing director of ScotRail and the chief executive of Network Rail. You will be aware that Alex Hynes has been seconded to the Department for Transport—ironically, to replicate what we have in Scotland, which is a far more integrated transport system of track and train together that has been established for some time. That means that we can try to plan works more collectively in order to minimise disruptions where we can.

As I said, performance is good. How do we specifically improve ScotRail performance? Replacement of the ageing fleet, for example, is a priority for us. We are looking at both the suburban and the intercity fleets in relation to procurement. Recruitment of engineers has really helped with improving some performance, particularly in areas that have seen challenges—for example, Fife.

Since ScotRail has moved into the public sector, we have added more than 200 additional services. Indeed, there are now 400 more people employed than there were prior to public sector ownership. The unions, in particular—I agree with them—are keen that we increase the number of apprentice engineers, which will help to improve the service. A more resilient fleet will also help.

There was quite a lot in there, but in respect of our oversight, when I have that meeting with ScotRail and Network Rail I will put pressure on them individually and collectively. The same level of performance is expected of both, so I expect them to continue to drive that forward in order improve.

Yes. What happens if you are—

I think that that would be a better way to pursue the matter.

I would like to be able to answer your question, but I think that it would be inappropriate for me to do so at this committee meeting.

Yes.

Colleagues might be able to update some of my figures, but 46.2 per cent of journeys under 2 miles were made by walking or cycling in 2022, and the figure for journeys under 5 miles was 2.1 per cent. However, statistically, those figures were not much different from the figures in 2019. I acknowledge that performance might not be as strong as we might expect or want, given the level of investment that we have made, but if we do not have investment to encourage people and make those options available, that is obviously an issue in itself.

I am sure that we will have the figures for 2023 at some point, but I do not know when that will be—perhaps one of my colleagues can tell me.

I do not know the details—I am sure that the committee’s researchers can look into this—but the hands-up survey is conducted annually in schools to get an understanding of who travels to school by walking or cycling. That information is available. I do not have it at my fingertips, but we can follow up with the committee if you are interested in that.

There are still challenges in how we get the best use of our walking and cycling infrastructure. However, the more people use public transport, the more they will walk. When I commute by rail, which I do frequently, I spend more of my journey time walking than I spend on the train, and I know that people who use buses will walk more in order to use them, so we need to look at these things in totality.

One of the big benefits of the Levenmouth rail link, which opened just last week, is the active travel part, which will help to connect communities across the Levenmouth area, not just from end to end.