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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-22382

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 30 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the collective bargaining agreements on the NorthLink fleet will be extended to the MV Helliar and MV Hildasay when they are purchased by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited.

Following the purchase of the two freight vessels, employment terms and conditions of staff employed on the MV Hildasay and MV Helliar will be given full consideration by Serco NorthLink Ferries, reflecting the principles set out under the Scottish Government’s Fair Work Framework.

Crew on board the freight vessels will continue to benefit from the principles set out in the Fair Work Framework such as; access to NorthLink’s extensive training programme, genuine workforce engagement and payment of the Living Wage.

Question reference: S5W-22758

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 30 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government by what date the ScotRail remedial plan on customer satisfaction will be published.

Question reference: S5W-22393

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 24 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to reconsider the terms of the seal licensing scheme.

Question reference: S5W-22395

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the ScotRail remedial plan target of exiting breach PPM levels by March 2020 is contractually binding.

In accordance with the franchise, a Remedial Agreement has been entered into between Scottish Ministers and Abellio ScotRail to contractualise the Remedial Plan. The contractual terms of the Remedial Agreement between Scottish Ministers and Abellio ScotRail contractually commits Abellio ScotRail to deliver a series of time bound commitments that are designed to improve the performance of Abellio ScotRail with a view to them exiting Breach Performance Level for the Suburban East and Express Other PPM sector by May 2020. In the event ScotRail fails to deliver on any of the contractual commitments as set out and programmed in the Remedial Agreement, this will constitute an Event of Default under the Franchise Agreement.

Question reference: S5W-22536

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 24 April 2019

Question reference: S5W-22534

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 24 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how doctors in training at Foundation Year (a) 1 and (b) 2 are allocated across (i) NHS boards and (ii) other national bodies.

There are 1700 Foundation Year (FY) doctors, split equally between FY1 and FY2.

In Scotland, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) has operational responsibility for the recruitment and monitoring of trainee doctors in GMC-approved training programmes, which it organises in collaboration with NHSScotland Boards.

On an agreed basis posts are distributed to the 4 NES regions as follows: West (50%), South-East (25%), East (10%) and North (15%). The posts are proportionately allocated across the constituent NHS Boards within each of these regions:

WEST Region	SOUTH EAST Region	EAST Region (Tayside)	NORTH Region
Ayrshire & Arran	Borders and Midlothian	Eastwards	Caledonian
Dumfries & Galloway	Edinburgh and East Lothian	Westwards	Grampian
Forth Valley	Edinburgh Central		Rural Track
Greater Glasgow Clyde	Fife and North Edinburgh
GG North east	West Lothian and West Edinburgh
GG North West
GG South
Lanarkshire

For 2019 the total Scottish FY1 post distribution is: West 414 (49%), South-East 198 (23%), North 141 (17%) and East 96 (11%) trainees. The numbers are identical for FY2.

The only non-Board posts are in palliative care. There is 1 FY2 post in Marie Curie Edinburgh and 1 FY2 post in Marie Curie Glasgow.

Question reference: S5W-22488

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the total franchise subsidy paid to ScotRail will be in 2018-19.

Question reference: S5W-22385

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many ScotRail trains have stop-skipped in each reporting period of the last year, also broken down as a percentage of all trains that ran in each period.

The following table details the number of services which failed to stop (skip stopped) during each 4 weekly period from Period 12 17-18 to Period 12 18-19 and the overall percentage.

Period	Failed To Stop	Failed To Stop %
1718_12	374	0.7%
1718_13	319	0.5%
1819_01	65	0.1%
1819_02	52	0.1%
1819_03	60	0.1%
1819_04	60	0.1%
1819_05	97	0.2%
1819_06	45	0.1%
1819_07	59	0.1%
1819_08	118	0.2%
1819_09	130	0.2%
1819_10	146	0.3%
1819_11	133	0.2%
1819_12	149	0.2%

NB ScotRail run circa 59,000 train services every period

Question reference: S5W-22394

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether ScotRail’s remedial plan includes contractual requirements on (a) cancellations and (b) punctuality and, if so, whether breaching these would constitute a default.

In accordance with the franchise, a Remedial Agreement has been entered into between Scottish Ministers and Abellio ScotRail to contractualise the Remedial Plan. The Remedial Agreement sets out the terms for implementing commitments contained in the Remedial Plan and is effective up to 30 May 2020. This accords with timescales for the completion of the contractual commitments in the Remedial Agreement and aligns with ScotRail’s forecasts of when ScotRail expect to exit Breach Performance Level for the Cancellation and PPM Benchmarks in respect of relevant sectors.

In the event ScotRail fails to deliver on any of the contractual commitments as set out and programmed in the Remedial Agreement, this would constitute a default.

Question reference: S5W-22392

Asked by: Colin Smyth, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 5 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it will consult on proposed changes to the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, and whether it aims to bring the changes into force before May 2021.

Dumfries & Galloway	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
Foundation	35	35	35	36
Core	16	16	16	16
Specialty (inclusive GPST)	43	43	43	43
Total	94	94	94	95