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: S5W-20400

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) total and (b) final monthly unitary charge payment will be to Aberdeen Roads Ltd for the final phase of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR), including the new Don Bridge, after it has been handed over to Transport Scotland.

Payments for phases of this project are subject to a number of factors and therefore payment amounts can vary. Once a payment has been certified, as part of the governance arrangement for the AWPR/B-T contract, Aberdeen City Council administers payments to Aberdeen Roads Limited (ARL) each month. The payments Transport Scotland makes to Aberdeen City Council are published in monthly expenditure reports and are available at: https://www.transport.gov.scot/about/expenditure/

The final payment will be after the concession period which runs until 13 November 2047.

Question reference: S5W-20398

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) was the first and (b) will be the final date of payments of monthly unitary charge for (i) phase 1, (ii) phase 2 and (iii) phase 2a of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR).

Question reference: S5W-20397

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much unitary charge has been paid each month to Aberdeen Roads Ltd for (a) phase 1, (b) phase 2 and (c) phase 2a of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR), since the phase was handed over to Transport Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-20537

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many trains were (a) cancelled and (b) delayed on the Aberdeen- (i) Glasgow and (ii) Edinburgh route on 2 December 2018, which was the day that ScotRail's new timetable came into force, also broken down by the reason for the disruption; whether ScotRail's performance target for the service that day was met, and what discussions it has had with the operator regarding the disruption.

The new timetable came into force on 9 December 2018.

On that day, there were 19 services between Glasgow & Aberdeen and 11 between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, with no cancellations on either service group. The PPM on that day for these services was 56.7%.

The largest cause of delay was due to congestion at Glasgow and Edinburgh due to late running cross border services impacting on ScotRail services as they entered to Scottish network and a signalling fault at Dyce.

My officials at Transport Scotland have been in daily contact with ScotRail over the operation and performance of the new timetable.

Question reference: S5W-20474

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with ScotRail to improve its service preparations for major sporting events.

The ScotRail franchise contains a number of obligations and commitments to plan for special events including staffing requirements and rolling stock to operate adequate passenger services to or from any special events.

In the case of the Betfred Cup final on Sunday 2nd December, ScotRail operated 5 and 6 coach formations instead of the usual 3 car, as well as providing travel advice to passengers via a press release on their website urging Aberdeen supporters to consider their travel options. This was because the three services arriving before kickoff, and three more leaving after the match were expected to be extremely busy.

Question reference: S5W-20472

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with ScotRail to ensure that staff training exercises do not coincide with major sporting events.

Question reference: S5W-20471

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many trains were delayed on the Aberdeen-Glasgow route on 2 December 2018, which was the day of the League Cup final; whether ScotRail's performance target for the service that day was met, and what discussions it has had with the operator regarding the delays.

Question reference: S5O-02732

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what general revenue funding it plans to provide to Aberdeen City Council in 2019-20.

Question reference: S5O-02721

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what part it believes housing policy should play in tackling social isolation.

Question reference: S5W-20139

Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 6 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5O-02586 by Michael Matheson on 21 November 2018, in what month it (a) was originally estimated that the Haudagain improvement project would be open to traffic and (b) is now expected to open to traffic.

Prior to one of the bidders withdrawing from the competition, it was estimated that the A90/A96 Haudagain Improvement Project would be open to traffic in December 2020. Due to the requirement for a revised procurement process, and difficulties encountered during the ground investigation work, which is essential to allow contractor to price and programme the job correctly, the project is now expected to open in March 2021, subject to receiving the successful contractor’s programme.