Seòmar agus comataidhean

As we have made clear since acquiring the airport in 2013, it is the Scottish Government’s intention to return the airport to the private sector when the time is right. No timescale has been set.

The draft budget for 2018-19 allocates loan support of £7.9 million for Glasgow Prestwick Airport.

Loan funding required in future years will be considered through the approval of the airport’s business plan for that year.

The Scottish Government provides LGBT Youth Scotland with funding of £260,000 from the Equality Budget in 2017-18 for a package of measures to advance LGBTI equality in Scotland, including delivering History Month.

I spoke at the Equal Futures Conference on 1 February organised by LGBT Youth Scotland and Children in Scotland to mark the start of LGBT History Month 2018, and the Scottish Government has been supporting the social media work of LGBT organisations throughout History Month.

Appropriate governance arrangements are in place that allow Glasgow Prestwick Airport’s performance to be monitored through the Operating Company Board and the Holding Company Board.

The HoldCo Board has corporate responsibility for ensuring that the Group fulfils the aims and objectives set by the Scottish Ministers. The OpsCo Board determines the long term strategy for developing the Airport and reports to the HoldCo Board. The Scottish Government has observer status on the OpsCo Board and has non-executive Directors on the HoldCo board.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport is operated on a commercial basis and at arm’s length from the Scottish Government. Ministers do not intervene in commercial discussions between any airport and any airline. Decisions on where to base aircraft and which routes to operate are entirely for airlines to take. Scottish airports compete with each other and with airports across Europe for capacity with Ryanair and many other airlines.

The MV Caledonian Isles is the current vessel on the Arran route. The operator made Scottish Government aware that both of its bow thrusters separately failed in early February 2018.

CalMac Ferries Ltd. confirmed that these failures, whilst regrettable, did not pose a safety issue. Following assessment, the operator implemented control measures to mitigate any additional risks identified. The operator notified the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the Lloyd's Register of Shipping classification society. Both were content for the vessel to remain in service. In both instances the vessel was repaired and the vessel is fully operational.

Transport Scotland officials meet regularly with the operator to discuss matters relating to the operation of the Clyde and Hebrides Public Service contract.

Our consistent view over many years is that there ought to be a level playing field between the private and public sector in bidding for rail franchises. This extends to costs associated with the franchise.

As with the private sector, any public sector bidder’s costs could be significant. Initial estimates based on previous franchises indicate bid costs in the region of £5 million to £10 million.

Again, as with the private sector, the costs of a public sector body operating the franchise would depend on (i) the scope of the franchise specification, (ii) forecast passenger revenues and other miscellaneous income which reduce the level of subsidy required (as happens at present), and (iii) the bidder’s determination of the quality and cost aspects of its bid. As the franchise specification has yet to be decided, no cost estimate has therefore been calculated by the Scottish Government.

Scottish Government’s Decommissioning Challenge Fund provided grant funding of £225,000 to Peel Ports (who own Clydeport) for a number of studies to both develop engineering options for a caisson dry dock gate to replace the existing earth bund and to prepare the necessary information for consent and licence applications for this use.

Scottish Enterprise (SE) has been fully engaged for over two years to help Peel develop new employment generating uses for the site. Scottish Development International and North Ayrshire Council have been part of the joint approach.

To date SE have not funded any studies of options for the site however they have recently finalised a report following a study of opportunities for LNG use in Scotland in which Hunterston was used as a case study for a reception port.

Peel is also considering on-site electricity/heat generation to attract high heat/power users to the site by providing cheaper utilities than grid provision.

Peel has published marketing information on the site which promotes it as a multi-use Port and Resource Centre. This relates to the coal yard part of the site.

The ScotRail Franchise Agreement requires the full fleet of 

‎ 70 Class 385 trains to be available for passenger service by December 2018. Scottish Ministers continue to receive regular updates from ScotRail and their supplier – Hitachi Rail Europe on their progress to gain approval from the independent Office of Road and Rail to enable service introduction and to achieve that contract target.

Two 7-car formations using existing class 380 electric trains have been running on the Edinburgh – Glasgow route since 10 December 2017 providing 100 extra seats per journey. All eight peak time formations were due to be operated by the new fleet from last December and once that is delivered 26% more seats will be available compared with the 6-car diesel class 170 trains.

Our immediate focus is to ensure ScotRail successfully introduce the new fleet while maintaining their continued focus on performance and reliability. Any delays will need to be resolved within the commercially confidential agreement between Hitachi (manufacturers), ScotRail (operators) & Caledonian Rail (owners - who lease fleet to ScotRail). Late delivery is not anticipated to result in additional costs to Scottish Ministers. Penalties are available to Ministers as a consequence of delays, and this is a commercial matter between Scottish Ministers and ScotRail.

From a total of 544 scheduled sailings, ?the Ardrossan-Arran (Brodick) ferry service has been (a) cancelled 34 times and (b) delayed 73 times between 01 January 2018 and 15 February 2018. In the following table a breakdown of the reasons for these disruptions is shown.

1) All disruptions over 10 minutes between 1 Jan 2018 and 15 Feb 2018

2) Level 1 Lateness - arrives 10-20 minutes later than Published Timetable

3) Level 2 Lateness - arrives over 20 Minutes later than Published Timetable

During periods of service disruption CalMac will, where possible, advise the travelling public in advance of any potentially cancelled sailings or amended timetables. This information is provided via the ferry operator’s website, by text and social media, as well as the national and local media.

Where periods of disruption are anticipated, CalMac will seek to flex the scheduled ferry service to provide sailings before or after the revised timetable, to minimise the impact on our remote and island communities.