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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-04953

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what procurement process is being used by Abellio ScotRail to purchase new rolling stock from Hitachi.

The new fleet of class 385s are being manufactured by Hitachi with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, trading as Caledonian Rail Leasing, [CRL] funding the 70 trains in a deal worth around £370M.

Abellio ScotRail followed an OJEU (Official Journal of the EU) procurement exercise during its bidding process and entered into a commercial arrangement with [CRL] to lease the 234 new carriages until the end of its franchise term.

Question reference: S5W-04966

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 December 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the service delays of 17 November 2016 has had on how it monitors the delivery of improvements pledged by Abellio ScotRail, and what improvements it plans to reduce the likelihood of similar delays in the future.

The Scottish Government has put in place a process to monitor the delivery of ScotRail's Performance Improvement Plan and this includes challenging them on the progress being made towards delivering the initiatives set out in the plan to improve performance. As part of the monitoring process, Transport Scotland officials challenged ScotRail on the incident which occurred on 17 November to understand the root cause and lessons to be learned following the incident.

The incident blocked all lines outside Edinburgh Waverley during the busy morning peak. Since the incident ScotRail have taken measures to avoid the practice of trains crossing over all lines to reduce the possibility of such an incident occurring again.

Question reference: S5W-04813

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the Lord Advocate to discuss the introduction of speed awareness courses, and what the outcome of the meeting was.

Question reference: S5W-04812

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the Road Safety Strategic Partnership Board and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S5W-04810

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the introduction of speed awareness courses in Scotland, similar to those that operate in the rest of the UK, and what steps would require to be taken to introduce these.

The Scottish Government supports the general principle of driver education as an alternative to prosecution, where this is appropriate and is committed through Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020 to consider if a Speed Awareness Course would make an effective contribution to road safety measures in Scotland.

Police Scotland are currently working with key road safety partners to develop potential options for the introduction of these courses. Partners include the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service as the approval of the Lord Advocate would be required before a speed awareness course could be introduced in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-04811

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 30 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many first-time speeding offenders were given penalty points in 2015.

Question reference: S5W-04954

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what progress Abellio ScotRail is making with its plans to purchase rolling stock from Great Western Railway.

Question reference: S5W-04951

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when the new Abellio ScotRail rolling stock will come into operation on the Edinburgh – Glasgow line and what plans there are to introduce new rolling stock on other services, broken down by (a) date of introduction and (b) cost.

ScotRail is committed to gradually introduce the new c385 trains on services operating between Edinburgh - Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High from September 2017 with all of the services on this route to be fully operated by the new fleet from December 2017.

During 2018 these will be rolled out onto services such as Dunblane/ Alloa/ Stirling, North Berwick/ Dunbar, south Glasgow suburban lines and Edinburgh - Glasgow via Shotts and by January 2019 the full fleet of 70 trains (46 three car and 24 four cars) will have been delivered. More detailed information is contained on the Abellio ScotRail website https://www.scotrail.co.uk/about-scotrail/new-trains

Question reference: S5W-04970

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how it procures grit and salt for winter resilience.

Each trunk road Operating Company has the responsibility for all aspects of winter service provision, including the procurement of salt for their operational use to treat our trunk roads. A strategic salt supply was established for the first time in Scotland in 2010/11 and should further provisions of strategic salt require to be procured, Transport Scotland will facilitate via Scotland Excel as members. Scotland Excel manages the procurement of high value, high risk goods and services that are commonly used by all local authorities. A range of other commodities can also be procured directly by local authorities or through national contracts managed by the Scottish Government.

Local authorities are responsible for winter service operations on local roads. The ScotRail Alliance has confirmed that winter plans have been introduced and that they have access to sufficient stocks of salt. Contingency plans are available in the event of stations not being treated when required, as required in their Franchise Agreement.

Question reference: S5W-04963

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2016
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the petition organised by 38 Degrees, which calls for Abellio to no longer have control of the ScotRail franchise.

I met with representatives of the 38 degrees group on 19 October 2016, where they presented the petition, raised concerns about ScotRail's performance and shared their experiences of using the rail network in Scotland.

I acknowledged the specific issues they raised by group members and my officials at Transport Scotland will pursue such issues in their monitoring of the ScotRail Improvement Plan.