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Transport Scotland officials meet regularly with their counterparts at Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) and CalMac Ferries Ltd to discuss future investment in vessels and harbours for the Clyde and Hebrides network, primarily but not exclusively at a formal bi-monthly programme board. Discussions have produced a forward programme which was summarised for the next five years in Annex D of the Scottish Government's Infrastructure Investment Plan published 4 February 2021 and is also reflected in the CMAL Business Plan 2021-2024 published 9 April 2021.

The Scottish Government's Infrastructure Investment Plan published 4 February 2021 stated that:

"We will produce and maintain a long-term plan and investment programme for new ferries and development at ports to improve resilience, reliability, capacity, and accessibility, increase standardisation, and reduce emissions to meet the needs of island communities, supported by investment of at least £580 million during the next five years as well as completing two new ferries for the Isle of Arran and the Uig Triangle"

A National Mission with Local Impact - draft infrastructure investment plan 2021-2022 to 2025-2026: consultation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

We will produce this long-term plan as part of the Islands Connectivity Plan that will replace the Ferries Plan from January 2023. In the meantime, our investment programme continues to be based on the Vessel Replacement and Deployment Plan; additional detail of the current programme is included in Annex D of the Infrastructure Investment Plan and updates have recently been shared with key island stakeholders.

vrdp-annual-report-2016-30-january-2018.pdf (transport.gov.scot)

This is an operational matter for ScotRail in negotiation with its staff through established collective bargaining arrangements.

I understand that established rest day working agreements remain in place for all ScotRail operational staff. The exceptional supplementary arrangements for Ticket Examiners and Conductors came to an end following successful recruitment, training and deployment of some 140 additional staff.

Similarly, 160 new drivers have been recruited, but Covid safety restrictions governing training in driving cabs have prevented their full training and deployment and therefore the exceptional supplementary arrangements remain in place until their training and deployment can be completed.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00322 on 16 June 2021 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government has already spent around £1bn to support Scottish rail services – including an increase of more than £400m over normal rail support payments for ScotRail. As well as maintaining essential railway services this funding has secured full railway staff employment throughout the pandemic period.

Abellio ScotRail is authorised to negotiate increases in pay from within the available railway Emergency Measures Agreement funding where the cost of these increases can be fully covered by mutually agreed efficiencies negotiated through the existing collective bargaining arrangements.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19): early learning and childcare (ELC) services was updated on 21 May to include a new section with guidance on transitions to primary school . This guidance is aimed at ELC settings and local authorities. Similar guidance has also been issued to schools.The guidance states that where this minimises the number of adults visiting schools, children should be accompanied to transition visits by ELC staff rather than by parents. The guidance explains that this should also ensure that the visit is undertaken by someone who is familiar with and used to applying the COVID risk mitigations in education settings.

Schools will be able to explain what alternative provisions they have in place to engage with parents remotely to support their child’s transition to school.

The guidance also explains that schools should be able to proceed with enhanced in person transition visits to support children who need it most. This allows children with additional support needs to become familiar with the primary school before they attend in August, in line with responsibilities under the Additional Support for Learning Act. This may involve the attendance of parents but this will be decided on a case by case basis through dialogue between the ELC setting and the school and should be supported by a bespoke risk assessment.

The timetable impact of the breakdown of the MV Loch Seaforth is summarised below:

The MV Loch Seaforth was removed from service on 14 April and other vessels were redeployed to ensure continuity of service across the network.

CalMac were unable to charter any suitable vessels at short notice, meaning re-deployment of a vessel from within the current fleet was required. The MV Isle of Lewis was redeployed from Castlebay-Oban to cover daytime Stornoway-Ullapool sailings, and the MV Isle of Arran redeployed from Ardrossan-Brodick to cover the overnight freight service. The MV Lord of the Isles provided a combined Castlebay-Oban-Lochboisdale-Mallaig service. The MV Isle of Arran subsequently incurred a technical issue and was swapped with the MV Hebridean Isles on the Kennacraig-Islay service, maintaining Islay’s two vessel service and a dedicated freight service for Ullapool-Stornoway, with the Ardrossan-Brodick service reduced to a single vessel service and delayed the start of the summer only Ardossan-Campbeltown service which shares a vessel with Ardrossan-Brodick. Some additional capacity for Arran was provided by deploying a second vessel, MV Loch Linnhe, to the Lochranza-Claonaig service. These changes resulted in revised timetabling for the affected routes. CalMac operated additional sailings where possible, however this was restricted by crew hours and availability.

MV Loch Seaforth resumed full service on Stornoway-Ullapool on the evening of 31 May. All services were back to normal with their usual vessel deployment on 3 June.

We are aware of the significant impact on communities and businesses throughout this unacceptable period of service. This includes impacts on island producers, tourism and haulage businesses across the network. As I have stated to Parliament, we are looking at all options to provide greater resilience to minimise disruption during any future prolonged periods of disruption – as well as ensuring any lessons are learned that prevent further breakdowns where these could be avoided.

(a) Scottish Government normally meets railway trade union representatives as part of the routine STUC meeting cycles to discuss any issues at hand. However due to Covid these meetings have not taken place in the normal manner. Arrangements for a meeting with railway trade union representatives are now being made.

(b) Individual matters in relation of the Dignity and Respect policy are for Abellio ScotRail and the employee(s) concerned.

We are committed to improving safety on our trunk roads including the A77. We have invested over £88.7 million on the A77 since 2007 to ensure its safe and efficient operation. In addition, we have spent approximately £35 million on four separate road schemes on the A77 and are currently constructing the Maybole Bypass at a cost of £29 million.

We carry out an annual road safety review on the entire trunk road network including the A77. From this review a number of schemes were completed in the last year including the installation of safety measures at the A77 / A751 junction north of Cairnryan, upgraded road markings on the approach to Dutchhouse Roundabout and a scheme is programed for construction shortly to upgrade the street lighting columns at the Holmston Roundabout with passively safe columns.

Other schemes currently under design include the signalisation of the Doonholm Road junction at Ayr, further safe systems measures including upgraded traffic signs, safety barriers and footway improvements at the A751 junction and measures to manage speed of traffic through Girvan.

Additional average speed cameras were installed and became operational on 29 April 2021 on the A77 Ayr Bypass between Whitletts Roundabout and Bankfield Roundabout.

As part of a package of measures to encourage active travel, removing barriers to accessibility and improve pedestrian and cycle safety we are also investigating upgrades to the existing footway from Bogend Toll to Dutchhouse Roundabout, increasing the width of the shared use path from Holmston to Whittlets Roundabout and a pedestrian crossing assessment is currently ongoing in Kirkoswald.