Chamber and committees

Historical management information confirms that the strategy adopted for publishing, print, design and associated services allows for extensive supply chain activity through sub-contracting routes with a range of local economic impacts. The current supplier has awarded business to 154 Scottish small and medium enterprises over the past four years.

As is the case with the current framework, the new supplier will also be required to incorporate Community Benefits into their service delivery. Community Benefits achievements to date on the current framework have included apprenticeships and skills development (e.g. training) through the Tomorrow’s People initiative, and working closely to support local schools e.g. printing service and paper provision.

Contracting opportunities were also made available to suppliers through the print services framework which will include up to 17 print suppliers or the design services lot of the marketing services framework which was awarded to five suppliers in June 2013.

The tendering process for the publishing, print, design and associated services framework was advertised on the Public Contracts Scotland tendering portal and also advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The publishing, print, design and associated services requirement was advertised on the Public Contracts Scotland portal, which is the main portal for contracting opportunities throughout Scotland. It is free for suppliers to register on the portal should they wish to be alerted to advertisements for contracting opportunities. The advertisement was also made available throughout the EU via an Official Journal of the European Union notice.

Our stakeholder consultation exercise included the British Print Industry Federation (BPIF), who recognised that customers are increasingly requiring multi-media campaigns and internet-based communications rather than just print per se, and recommended the procurement model needed to reflect choice and flexibility to address certain, specific needs of individual end user organisations. BPIF also recommended that a supply base with broad service coverage, improved service quality, financial viability, and added value to end-users was required. The strategy to procure both a publishing, print, design and associated services and a print services framework has sought to act upon these recommendations. BPIF also confirmed they would be pleased to assist consortia of SMEs coming forward as potential suppliers by working with Scottish Procurement to provide a suitable template to enable this. The invitation to tender therefore made it clear that Scottish Procurement would consider consortia bids.

The recommendations in the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) review will have a positive impact on the safety of offshore workers travelling to and from their place of work. With the oil and gas industry and the rest of the country we were shocked and saddened by the fatalities which have occurred and are determined that all appropriate lessons are learnt and implemented. We understand that some of the recommendations may be challenging for helicopter operators and are pleased that Oil and Gas UK and the CAA are having productive discussions on implementation of the review. The overall objective is to reduce the likelihood of accidents happening, and when accidents do occur to increase the likelihood of passengers and crew surviving. We would encourage everyone involved in this process to ensure that objective remains paramount.

Although the regulation of health and safety is not a devolved matter, the Scottish Government were fully aware of the Elgin Gas Leak incident and co-operated with the UK government to minimise and monitor environmental impact and to plan for and assist in the response through Marine Scotland.

Reports from the Health and Safety Executive and the Department for Energy and Climate Change on the incident have been submitted to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. A decision as to criminal proceedings will be taken following the conclusion of a full investigation, including consideration of those reports.

An offshore oil and gas industry with the highest standards of safety is vital to Scotland’s economic well-being. The Scottish Government will always work with all interested parties to ensure a rigorous and well-funded North Sea safety regime.

There have now been two meetings of the Expert Ferry Group, with the next meeting scheduled for 14 May 2014. Minutes of each meeting, including details of who attended, are published on the Transport Scotland website:

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/water/expert-ferry-group

Details of the current members of the Expert Ferry Group can be found on the Transport Scotland website:

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/water/expert-ferry-group

Professor Neil Kay was formerly a member of the Expert Ferry Group, however he resigned from the group in February 2014.

Only one of the 10 members of the group is a private ferry operator. The other members cover a broad range of interests and are mostly drawn from the public or academic sectors.

Transport Scotland provides secretariat support to the Expert Ferry Group and Transport Scotland prepare the minutes of the meeting of the group. Members of the group are asked to comment on and clear minutes prior to publication on the Transport Scotland website. Members cannot redact sections of the minutes of the group meetings.

The minutes are open and transparent and are published on the Transport Scotland website:

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/water/expert-ferry-group

Membership of the Expert Ferry Group is on the basis of an individual’s knowledge and expertise rather than as a representative of a particular stakeholder group. Members of the Expert Ferry Group include key transport professionals, academics and operators of ferry services.

The work of the Expert Ferry Group will be in relation to strategic issues. It is open to members of the group to propose strategic issues for consideration by the group.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-20827 on 2 May 2014. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.