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The Scottish Government does not hold the detailed cost breakdown on the amount spent clearing rail tracks of debris in the calendar year, 2016, nor the estimate of expenditure for 2017. However, we would expect, as funder and specifier, that Network Rail will deploy sufficient resources to meet its performance and reliability requirements in Scotland.

In 2016-2017, the percentage of trains delayed due to ice (that is, all types of freezing conditions) represented 0.06% of services planned to run. The percentage of trains cancelled represented 0.0045% .

Transport Scotland is working with the ScotRail Alliance to prepare for potential severe winter weather and expect to see further improvements. This will include mobile snow and ice clearance machines and equipment.

ScotRail will implement a robust communications plan will be delivered ensuring passengers are prepared for adverse weather, including customer road shows at key stations throughout December, and the creation of a dedicated website and social media campaign for key messages.

Floods are natural events and can affect all modes of transport however, safety for all transport users is our primary concern.

(a) We have treated local government very fairly, despite the cuts to the Scottish Budget from the UK Government.

Taking the 2017-18 local government finance settlement plus the other sources of income available to councils through reforms to council tax and funding for Health and Social Care Integration, the overall increase in spending power to support local authority services amounted to over £383 million or 3.7 per cent.

The vast majority of the funding provided by the Scottish Government to local government is in the form of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities, including the Scottish Government’s key strategic objectives.

Reducing flood risk is a priority for the Scottish Government and we are working in partnership with SEPA, local authorities and others to deliver the first round of flood risk strategies. As part of this, we are making £42 million available each year to local authorities to invest in flood protection. For background, the first round of the flood risk strategies which deliver actions to reduce flood risk across Scotland were published in December 2015 and cover a 6 year cycle to 2021.

We are a strategic partner of the Scotland National Centre for Resilience (NCR) and feed into their work which aims to improve on the understanding of the impact of natural hazards and provide support to responders and communities including practical tool kits and resources for those who operate on the ground, and to ensure communities across the country are fully and adequately prepared for natural hazards such as flooding and landslides.

We are also seeking to obtain a national register of emergency temporary flood (defence) assets that we could use upon request, in conjunction with the various local authority Local Planning District flood forums. In addition, we are participating in Regional Resilience Partnership events to stress-test resilience response to severe weather including flooding.

(b) Our Trunk Road Operating Companies are contracted to ensure that drainage systems are maintained, are structurally sound and are able to remove water from trafficked surfaces and sub-layers without causing pollution or flooding and that the effects of any flooding are mitigated.

Information contained within our asset management systems allows operators to assess the whole network and to identify those areas at greater risk from flooding. This allows capital investment funds to be allocated to drainage improvement schemes using a risk-based approach with the aim of reducing the likelihood or consequence of flooding. As part of this approach we have made funds of £3m available this financial year to carry out maintenance and improvements to drainage systems across the Scottish trunk road network.

Our Operating Companies routinely inspect the trunk road network at 7-day intervals. These inspections are primarily to identify defects that require prompt attention (Category 1 defects) because they present, or could present, an immediate hazard to road users. This includes issues associated with flooding and drainage. Flooding events are recorded and this information is used to inform the development of future maintenance and investment programmes.

In addition to this, our Operating Companies also monitor the trunk road network during periods of heavy or sustained rainfall to provide an appropriate response endeavouring to keep roads open where possible or to close them should the flooding compromise the safety of road users. They have appropriate plant, equipment and resources including traffic management strategically placed across the trunk road network to deal with flooding events in a timely and effective manner.

Our Operating Companies are required to attend any incident on the trunk road network within 20 minutes on our major routes where we operate a Trunk Road Incident Support Service (TRISS) or within a maximum of 1.5 hours response time on all other routes through our Incident Support Units. Should the flooding cease to abate further secondary and back-up plant, equipment and resources are available at short notice to be deployed and assist with alleviating the flooding issues encountered.

In March 2013, Transport Scotland opened the purpose-built Traffic Scotland National Control Centre (TSNCC) at South Queensferry which aims to reduce journey times across the transport network through direct communication with the travelling public, via a number of media platforms, especially during periods of severe weather.

The TSNCC also hosts the Multi-Agency Response Team (MART) arrangements which co-ordinates a joined-up response during weather events including flooding. Partners include Police Scotland, Operating Companies, the Scotrail Alliance and the Met Office, and provides a strategic overview of event and incident handling.

High winds are a regular feature of our Scottish weather and can affect all modes of transport. Safety for all transport users is our primary concern.

There were 9 closures in April/May/June 2017 and 2 closures in July/August/September 2017.

The number of ferries (a) delayed and (b) cancelled in the last two quarters as defined within the Public Service Contracts with the Scottish Ministers (1 April 2017 to 30 September 2017 inclusive) is as follows:

• CalMac - (a) 1354 delayed and (b) 1222 cancelled out of a total of 80,301 scheduled sailings, 1.69% and 1.52% respectively.

• Serco NorthLink Ferries - (a) 110 delayed and (b) 6 cancelled out of a total of 1,300 scheduled sailings, 8.46% and 0.46% respectively.

• Argyll Ferries Ltd - (a) 5 delayed and (b) 332 cancelled out of a total of 9,677 scheduled sailings, 0.05% and 3.43% respectively.

The Scottish Government does not hold statistics on delayed or cancelled bus services.

Responsibility for the response time to major disruptions on the Glasgow-Falkirk-Edinburgh railway service is an operational matter and rests with ScotRail and Network Rail.

However, officials from Transport Scotland meet regularly with their counterparts from ScotRail and Network Rail to review and challenge how they respond to major disruptions.

There are 803 carriages in the Abellio ScotRail (ASR) fleet and they will operate over winter 2017-2018. In the coming months ScotRail will gradually introduce new electric Class 385 trains.

Transport Scotland monitors the franchisee’s quality of facilities at stations and on train through a Service Quality Incentive Regime (SQUIRE). This includes on-train heating to ensure that the temperature in use should not fall below 10 degrees Celsius.

Since the franchise commenced the audits have recorded isolated occurrences where trains have failed to meet the standards as a result of temperature issues.

The Scottish Government has no statutory functions in relation to the security of energy supplies, including fuel. This is a matter reserved to the UK Parliament and UK Government Ministers.

However, Scottish Ministers take the wellbeing of customers and communities very seriously and to ensure, through our resilience framework, that preparedness is optimised. As part of Resilience Week (6 - 10 November 2018), the Scottish Government is encouraging everyone to think about their own readiness for disruptive events such as severe weather and power failure or difficulties in having their oil or LPG supplies refuelled.