Chamber and committees

The events outlined by the Audit Scotland report on Coatbridge College took place at a time when primary responsibility for severance lay with college boards. Since then, colleges have become subject to the Scottish Public Finance Manual and must comply with the process outlined around settlement and severance arrangements.

As a result, colleges are now required to seek prior approval from the Scottish Funding Council for both settlement and severance arrangements.

This is a matter for the Scottish Funding Council. I have asked the Chief Executive of the Council to respond directly.

The Scottish Funding Council advises that the cost of college mergers is around £55 million, most of which was associated with voluntary severance programmes. Final details of costs will be captured by the Scottish Funding Council’s forthcoming evaluations of each merger.

Based on the latest projections for the existing contract, the Scottish Government is currently estimating annual public subsidy payments in the range of £110 million to £120 million (excluding inflation) for each year of the 2016-24 contract. The actual subsidy in each year of the contract will only be known following acceptance of the successful tenderer bid.

The mechanism used to determine the level of dividend for the successful operator will be included in the invitation to tender for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services. It will seek to balance exposure to risk and reward, with appropriate shared-gain provisions to incentivise the operator to run the services as efficiently and effectively as possible. The mechanism and the terms of the contract may form part of the tender negotiations leading up to the issue of the invitation to submit final tenders.

Information on the Gourock to Dunoon procurement timeline and the procurement procedure will be provided when the contract notice is published later in 2015.

The terms of the existing pension scheme are a matter for the trustees, current employers and employees and their representatives and will not form part of negotiations during the tender process.

A joint pensions working group involving officials from Transport Scotland and representatives from the STUC and ferry unions was set up to discuss employment and pension protections in December 2014. The group has met a further three times since December 2014 to discuss specific proposals in relation to pension and employment protections to be included in the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services tender specification.

The redacted elements relate to the board's confidential consideration of the pension scheme as part of its normal business as an employer.

The minutes of the meeting are prepared by Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) who have no plans to publish the redacted sections at this time.

Scottish Ministers want to protect the CalMac pension scheme in the next Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract in line with their stated principles of fairness, affordability and sustainability for public sector pensions. A pensions working group, involving officials from Transport Scotland and representatives from the STUC and ferry unions was set up in December 2014 to discuss the best way to achieve this outcome.