Chamber and committees

These are sensible regulations to put through, but there is nothing to stop us writing to the minister, saying that Mr Ruskell has raised these concerns, and seeing if we get a response. We could then monitor the issue in future, as the deputy convener suggests, to see whether the regulations have had an effect. Alerting the minister would be the way forward, and of course, the points are now in the Official Report.

If the committee is happy for me to do so, I will write to the minister to relay those points. My substantial question, though, is: are members happy not to make any further recommendations—or, indeed, any written recommendations—regarding the instrument and happy for it to go through?

Members indicated agreement.

Monica, did you want to come in here? I have a couple of questions that I want to ask, too.

I have to try to keep all my committee members happy by allowing them to ask as many questions as possible, which means that I implore them to ask short questions. I have to ask Martyn Gray and Gordon Martin for short answers so that I can get them all in. Everything that you say is critical, but if you can condense your answers, that will save me from having to deal with the committee afterwards.

Would our deputy convener like to come in on that point?

Okay. I will come to Monica Lennon in a minute, but I will continue on vessel 801. Part of the design of 801 is crew accommodation, which has been described as being vitally important. There has been mention—or there have been discussions—that vessels 801 and 802 might be double crewed in the future. However, there is no double-crew accommodation and single crewing might not allow for the crew who are on down time to have uninterrupted sleep, which means that it takes them longer to come back on duty. Is that the case? Do you have concerns about the ability of 801 and 802 to be double crewed?

You are on screen, Gordon, so we will start with you.

Item 2 is to decide whether to take in private item 4, which is consideration of the evidence session that we will hear today as part of our inquiry into Scotland’s ferry services. Do we agree to take item 4 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

You are being extremely diplomatic, deputy convener. We were just discussing earlier this morning our having five more evidence-taking sessions, but I think that we would very much like to see the report, even if we cannot attend its launch. Thank you for the invitation, though.

Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted, Mark.

We went to Arran the other day, and I felt that the set-up and speed of turnaround of the MV Caledonian Isles proved how quickly that sort of thing could be done when the design had been correctly thought out. Martyn, can I push you slightly on that? Is that one of the benefits that you see of early involvement in the design of ferries, because you know what actually has to be done by the people on the ground?