Chamber and committees

Each of the 32 local authorities is responsible for resourcing their building standards services appropriately.

I have become aware that since the economic downturn of 2008 there have been situations where experienced Building Standards Managers and staff have either retired or taken voluntary exit arrangements from local authorities. At the same time there appears to have been little corresponding intake of trainee or apprentice Building Standards Officers in many areas of Scotland. I understand that as the volume of building projects has been increasing some local authorities have had difficulty in recruiting and replacing staff. The Scottish Government is currently consulting on Building Warrant Fees which includes a proposal to increase fees to provide additional funding to local authorities.

Scottish Government has not made such an assessment but knows that delays may be due to local authority processing, the quality of the submitted plans, or delays in applicants submitted revised details. We are aware that Local Authority Building Standards Scotland who represent local authority building standards services in Scotland have examined this issue and provided the following information:

More than 330 housing development applications were submitted immediately before the October 2015 change in energy standards. As of 1 Dec 2017, 41% of these applications remain unapproved and are sitting with the housebuilder for action.

For the time taken to gain approval for housing applications, the verifier typically works on the application for 30% of the time; the remaining 70% of the time is down to the housebuilder producing essential information to allow approval.

The Building (Scotland) Act 2003 allows Scottish Ministers to appoint verifiers on such terms or limitations as they feel appropriate. It also allows any appointment to be made, varied or terminated at any time. Local authorities are appointed as verifiers until end the end of April 2017. I am currently reviewing the appointment process for verifiers from May 2017 onwards, however there are no plans for wider consultation on the matter.

Verifiers are subject to regular monitoring under a performance framework introduced in May 2012. Local authorities are committed to the verification performance framework and information on the framework can be found at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/Building/Building-standards/verification/2011-17

The total funding was for stock and rabbit fencing under the Rural Priorities Scheme applications required under the Scottish Rural Development Programme, in each year from 2007 to 2013:

The amounts above show the value of the commitments contained on Rural Priorities contracts.

The total funding was for stock and rabbit fencing under the Land Managers Options applications required under the Scottish Rural Development Programme, in each year from 2007 to 2013.

The responsibility for the maintenance of electric vehicle charge points on the ChargePlace Scotland network rests with the charge point host. We do not hold historic information on charge points that are out of order. However, as part of a new system, we receive snapshots of the status of the network. As of 6 December 2016, 93 per cent of the charge points on the ChargePlace Scotland network were operating, and of the around 150 rapid charge points, 95 per cent were operating.

We are working closely with partners to improve the reliability of the network, in areas such as communications, and we have recently appointed a new Operator for the ChargePlace Scotland network to improve the network further. They will also be undertaking a full audit and branding exercise of the network.

The Scottish Government is committed to the ChargePlace Scotland network which now comprises over 1,200 charging bays (equating to over 600 charge points) across Scotland. Usage has doubled from August 2015 to August 2016.

I refer the member to Appendix 1 to Schedule 7.1, Appendix 2 to Schedule 7.1 and Appendix 3 to Schedule 7.1 of the ScotRail Franchise Agreement.

http://www.transport.gov.scot/rail/scotrail-franchise/public-register

The Profit Threshold at which Abellio ScotRail Limited is required to pay back 50% of its profits is thirty million pounds.

The concept of a profit cap was introduced by the Scottish Government in 2008, a UK first for Rail Franchises, and was tightened considerably - by £9 million when the new Abellio franchise was let.

I refer the member to the following table, which sets out the relevant Performance Levels. Schedule 7.1 (Paragraph 3.2 – Consequences for Poor Performance) sets out the consequences of the Franchisee failing to equal or exceed these Levels.

{http://www.transport.gov.scot/rail/scotrail-franchise/public-register}

I refer the member to the recently published Performance Improvement Plan on the ScotRail website. In the rural area the actions include signalling equipment performance, track renewals, fleet improvements and detailed operational planning reviews.

The Scottish Government has put in place a process to monitor the delivery of ScotRail's Performance Improvement Plan. This includes challenge to ScotRail on the progress made towards delivering the initiatives, assurance reviews and an analysis of progress reports provided.