Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government is aware of the impact that the UK Government’s pension annual and life time allowances policy is having on the GP workforce in Scotland. There is limited action we can take to mitigate the impact as issues relating to pensions are a reserved matter. We have written to the UK Government on a number occasions to urge them to take action, and we have highlighted our concerns about the risks to delivering in-hours general practice as well as out of hours services.

I can confirm that today Serco Caledonian Sleepers Limited has been advised that its proposal to rebase the Franchise Agreement with Scottish Ministers for the provision of Caledonian Sleeper rail services has been rejected on the grounds of not representing value for money to the public.

Additionally, I can confirm that a notice was served today which confirms that the Scottish Ministers will terminate the Franchise Agreement with Serco Caledonian Sleepers Limited on 25 June 2023.

Work is underway to determine arrangements for the continued provision of Caledonian Sleeper rail services beyond 25 June 2023 and this will be updated to Parliament once determined.

It is worth noting that Serco Caledonian Sleepers Limited has, broadly, delivered well and significantly improved Caledonian Sleeper services over the last 7 years.

As set out in the joint Bidding Prospectus, all green port bidders were required to ensure that their proposal embedded the second National Transport Strategy vision, priorities and outcomes for the transport system with in it as well as ensuring alignment with regional and local transport strategies.

Following selection there will of course be intensive discussions with each of the successful designations on all aspects of their proposals.

Over the past decade the Scottish Government has invested more than £55 million in electric vehicle charging. ChargePlace Scotland (CPS), a publicly available network of chargers, now consists of over 2,300 charge points across Scotland.

Responsibility for repairing charge points rests with the host or owner, which may be a local authority, other public body, third sector, or business. The CPS back office, which is a contracted service, advises hosts of faults as they arise.

Most faults on the network are short-lived and in the majority of cases require no physical intervention. Overall reliability across the CPS network is typically very good: on average 95% - 97% of charge points are operational each day.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on all public charge points in Scotland, only those on CPS.

(a) Information on the location of faults on the CPS network is not held by Scottish Ministers. Transport Scotland works with the CPS back office to enhance data provision and information, and I will ensure that members are kept updated on those improvements.

(b) Information on the costs of repairing broken or out of service charge points is not held by Scottish Ministers. Charge point maintainers provide quotes and issue invoices directly to the owner of the charge point.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11074 on 5 October 2022. 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

With the exception of two additional MSPs being invited to the Taskforce meeting on 29 September 2022, there has been no changes to the recent core attendee list.

I agreed at the last Taskforce meeting on 29 September to increase the frequency of meetings to three times per year, the next Taskforce meeting will be held January 2023, after the medium term proposals have been announced. In relation to the suggestion to appoint an independent chair I put it to the Taskforce members for discussion and it was agreed at the meeting I would chair the Taskforce meetings going forward.

We are progressing work to develop a medium term resilient route through Glen Croe. We will bring forward proposals for this by late 2022.

The recent Resource Spending Review allocated £46 million to the Community Bus fund for the remainder of this parliament, with a further £30 million allocated in the Capital Spending Review. These financial envelopes are intended to guide financial planning and reform across the public sector, in anticipation of future Scottish budget setting processes. Work is ongoing with local authorities and COSLA to determine how best to allocate this funding.

As penalty charge notices can only be issued once Glasgow’s LEZ grace period expires (31 May 2023) no fines have been issued by Glasgow City Council as yet.

The Scottish Government remains committed to medium and long term solutions to address landslip risks at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful.

I can confirm that design and assessment work for both medium and long term solutions at the Rest and be Thankful is being taken forward from the Capital Land and Works allocation as part of the Scottish Budget: 2022-23.