Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S2W-32424

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive in respect of each of the projects contained in Scotland’s transport future, what the current estimate is of the total cost of each project and how much expenditure will be incurred in each year from 2006-07 to 2012-13.

Question reference: S2W-32408

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the costs of the proposed Inverness trunk link route will be met by (a) it and (b) the Highland Council and others.

Question reference: S2W-32409

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding remains undistributed from the fund earmarked for Scottish Bus Group pensioners; whether further payments will be made and, if so, when and how much, and whether payment of equal shares will be made to the widows or widowers of members of the pension scheme.

There is £158,000 remaining fromthe £126 million surplus which arose from the Scottish Transport Group pension funds.This sum has been reserved for distribution to identified eligible former pensionscheme members and claims continue to be made. There are no other funds to distributeand no further payments will be made. Widows and widowers have received 100% oftheir entitlement under the pension scheme rules and therefore will not receiveany additional payments.

Question reference: S2W-32407

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide financial assistance to the Highland Council to progress work in relation to the proposed Inverness trunk link route and, if so, what the amount will be of such assistance and for what purpose and in which financial years it will be provided.

Highland Council is currently taking forward the Inverness SouthConnectivity Study which is a Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidelines appraisalof the transport options for transport connectivity in the transport system aroundthe south of Inverness. An official fromTransport Scotland is on the working group to represent trunk road interestsin relation to the connections between the Inverness Southern Distributor Road andthe existing trunk road network.

Once the work on the optionsis completed this will be available to feed into the Strategic Transport ProjectsReview which is on-going and is due for completion in the summer 2008.

Question reference: S2W-32425

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the costs of any planned strategic transport projects are set to rise, or considered likely to rise, over the stated estimates and, if so, whether it will provide full details of any such rises.

The estimated costs of eachof the planned strategic transport projects are provided in the reply to the answer to question S2W-29718 on 23 March 2007, which is available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

These are our latest best estimates based on the variousrisks currently identified for each of these projects. The final costs will notbe known until tenders have been returned and contracts completed.

Question reference: S2W-32422

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what improvements will be made to the (a) A9, (b) A96, (c) A82, (d) A95 and (e) A86 in each of the next four years, listing the name or brief details of each scheme and its estimated cost.

Planned expenditure on theA9, A96, A82, A95 and A96 in each of the next four years may be found on theTransport Scotland website at:http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/defaultpage1221cde0.aspx?pageID=20.

In addition to the schemeslisted in the website a new western bypass of Crianlarich on the A82 is beingplanned for a construction start in 2009-10 at an estimated cost of £5.3million and an improvement to remove a bottleneck at Pulpit Rock on the A82 atLoch Lomond is being planned for a construction start in 2010-11 at anestimated cost of £8.4 million.

Three major maintenanceschemes with road improvements are being planned on the A9 at Slochd, Moy andCarrbridge and will include additional overtaking lanes which will be 3.5km,1.3km, and 1.7km long respectively.

In addition to the schemeswhich are currently being taken forward to construction, we are currentlyundertaking two studies on the A9. The A9 Route Improvement Strategy isconsidering the need to upgrade the A9 north of Perth and at Berriedale Braes thereis an investigation into interim and long term options for improving poorgeometry at this location. Information about studies on the A96 can be found in my reply to question S2W-32421 which is available on the Parliament’s website, thesearch facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

All start and completion datesare subject to the satisfactory completion of statutory procedures.

In addition the StrategicTransport Projects Review will consider these routes as part of the on-goingwork towards the next phase of major transport infrastructure investment.

Question reference: S2W-32421

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what investment is planned for major improvements to the A96 in each year to 2012.

Planned expenditure on the A96during this period may be found on the Transport Scotland website at http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/defaultpage1221cde0.aspx?pageID=20.

In addition, we are currentlyundertaking a design study for a dual carriageway improvement of the A96 betweenInverness and Inverness Airport. We have also invested in a major multi-modal transportcorridor study between Aberdeen and Inverness to provide the evidence to guide future investment prioritiesfor this route.

Question reference: S2W-32426

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any information that would indicate that costs of strategic transport projects are considered likely to rise above the stated estimates has not been placed in the public domain and, if so, whether any such information will be published prior to May 2007.

Question reference: S2W-29718

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the current estimated costs are of each of the projects in its strategic transport programme.

I refer to the statement I madein Parliament on 16 March 2006 (see Official Report, c 24049) in which Iprovided an update on progress on our capital transport plan for new rail and roadinvestment. The following table lists the estimated costs mentioned in my statementtogether with the current estimated costs for the road projects included in theplan.

Project	Anticipated Out–Turn Forecast* (or Grant Limit Where so Noted) (£ Million)
Rail Projects
Edinburgh Airport Rail Link	550 - 650
Glasgow Airport Rail Link	170 - 210
Airdrie - Bathgate	300 - 375
Edinburgh Tram Lines 1 & 2	450 - 500 Proposed grant limit
Edinburgh Waverley	150
Borders Rail	155 Proposed grant limit
Larkhall - Milngavie	25
Stirling – Alloa - Kincardine	65 – 70
Road Projects
Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route	295 – 395
Kincardine Bridge	102 plus VAT
M74 Completion	375 – 500
M74 Raith	56-61 plus VAT
M8 Baillieston - Newhouse	170 – 210 plus VAT
M8 Associated Network Improvements	43 – 57 plus VAT
M80 Stepps - Haggs	130 – 150 plus VAT

Note: *The anticipated costswill depend on the out-turn of the various risks associated with each of these projects,subject to limits of grants proposed for some public transport works.

I wrote to the Local Governmentand Transport Committee on 13 March 2007 to explain that the anticipated outturnforecast of the Kincardine Bridge has risen from the tender cost of £93.5millionplus VAT (as indicated in my statement on 16 March) to £102.5 million to includea number of items that do not form part of the core contract estimate such as provisionsfor grouting underground mine workings, public utilities works and engineering costs.Otherwise, the anticipated out-turn forecasts for all other projects in the programmeare the same as those quoted in my statement last March.

Question reference: S2W-32328

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether individuals entitled to object to a permanent Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) in respect of the Edinburgh trams scheme are entitled to object to the proposed temporary TRO and, if so, whether a public inquiry would be held to consider such objections, how long the Reporter to the inquiry could take to reach a conclusion, whether an inquiry would delay the construction work for the scheme and what impact any consequent delay would have on the costs of the scheme.