Chamber and committees

The terms of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) contract, requires the operator to ensure lifeline support to the emergency services is available when required. This includes during periods of disruption, or if capacity is restrained such as during the Covid-19 pandemic as a consequence of physical distancing.

In addition, and in agreement with Transport Scotland, CalMac also has a protocol in place that ensures an island resident can attend a medical appointment on the mainland at short notice.

Whilst the Scottish Government supports and encourages employers to pay the National Living Wage as well as employees’ rights, collective bargaining agreements are a matter for CalMac and Northern Ferries, its employees and the recognised trades unions.

Employee pay and conditions are the responsibility of Pentland Ferries in relation to its ferry operation. We have not held any discussions with them on this matter.

Transport Scotland’s Procurement Strategy plays a key role in achieving Transport Scotland’s Vision to create a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system, which in turn will help to deliver a healthier, fairer and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses and visitors. It aligns to the Scottish Government’s procurement policy and assists in achieving its national outcomes.

Although Transport Scotland does not regularly measure its public procurement policies in the ferries sector against the National Performance Framework specifically, it publishes an Annual Procurement Report, which reports on Transport Scotland’s regulated procurements.

The Transport Scotland’s Annual Procurement Report 2020 was published in January 2021 and reported on compliance with commitments made in our Corporate Procurement Strategy and includes a summary of community benefits generated through Transport Scotland ferries contracts.

The Employee Voice indicator in the National Performance Framework draws on data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is run by the Office for National Statistics. This is the largest household study in the UK and provides the official measures of employment, unemployment and economic inactivity.

Performance of the Employee Voice indicator is determined by a change of ±1.5 percentage points between the current year’s headline (i.e. all of Scotland) figure and the previous year’s headline figure.

The system of sampling used for the LFS provides a representative sample of the population at a regional level, but provides no guarantee of adequate coverage of any individual industry (as the survey is not industrially stratified). Industry category is self-reported by respondents participating in the survey and questions relating to collective agreements on pay are asked in the October to December survey period.

As a result, the Employee Voice indicator is based on a sample that is representative for Scotland as a whole, but may or may not be representative for any particular industry within Scotland.

Therefore, the Employee Voice indicator will have sampled workers from the transport industry, but those included in the sample may not cover all the sectors within that industry.

Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government is investigating potential options to ensure that consumers and the wider public can have confidence in the reliability of private PCR tests.

We have issued guidance for employers on setting up private testing programmes which includes information on seeking assurances around test quality: Coronavirus (COVID-19) - employee testing programmes: guidance for employers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

UK Government legislation regulating the Coronavirus test devices can be found here: The Medical Devices (Coronavirus Test Device Approvals) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (legislation.gov.uk) .

The Scottish Government has remained engaged with the aviation sector throughout the pandemic and will continue to do so, including on testing of international travellers.

Travellers returning from green and amber list countries must use the NHS tests, which can be booked through the UK Government’s booking portal for international travel. These kits are home test PCR kits provided by NHS Test & Trace. The cost of the kits is set by the UK Government and the process managed through its contract with the travel management company, so our ability to reduce costs unilaterally is limited.

Currently, we are not using private test providers for international travellers arriving into Scotland from green and amber list countries due to concerns about the speed and reliability of the flow of data from private companies. We are having on-going discussion with the UK government on any issues with using private test providers and any risks attached to this. We are keen to understand fully the key performance indicators (KPIs) that have been recently set for these companies and the process should these not be met.

Travellers returning to Scotland from green and amber list countries must use the NHS tests, which can be booked through the UK Government’s booking portal for international travel. These kits are home test PCR kits provided by NHS Test & Trace.

NHS Scotland has no role in setting the price of the kits. The cost of the kits is set by the UK Government and the process managed through its contract with the travel management company, so our ability to reduce costs unilaterally is limited.

Travellers arriving into Scotland from green and amber list countries must use the NHS tests, which can be booked through the UK Government’s booking portal for international travel. These kits are home test PCR kits provided by NHS Test & Trace.

Travellers arriving into England from green and amber list countries are allowed to book private sector tests.

To date, there are concerns with the flow of data from private sector providers into Public Health England/Public Health Scotland to help with contact tracing and to identify Variants of Concern (VoCs). The UK Government has recently introduced key performance indicators (KPIs) for private providers to meet and is increasing the requirements on such providers to try to address these problems in England.

There are risks associated with the use of private sector tests. In particular, there have been concerns with the data flow from private laboratories into relevant contact tracing systems on either side of the border. There have been examples of it taking 30 days for positive test results to be transferred, making it impossible for contact tracing to be undertaken to interrupt chains of transmission.

We are currently exploring options to allow the use of private sector tests, provided this can be done safely and we can be assured that there aren’t any issues with the flow of data from the testing provider to Public Health Scotland regarding test results, as well as the need for positive test results to be analysed for evidence of any variants of concern. No decision has been made yet on this, however this is under review.

The cost incurred due to disruptions, including potential charter of any additional tonnage, if available, would depend on the time over which vessels were chartered for and under which conditions. We are actively exploring opportunities for chartering additional tonnage, including consideration of the suitability of MV Pentalina to increase resilience across the network. In addition, we have also confirmed new investment of £580 million in ports and vessels to support and improve Scotland’s ferry services over the next five years, as part of our wider infrastructure investment plan.