Chamber and committees

There is nodefinition, in statute, of “lifeline ferry service”. However, the previousadministration noted that, in subsidising ferry services, its objective was “toensure the provision of a suitable standard of transport connection, in termsof quality, frequency and capacity, to island (or, in some cases, remotepeninsular) communities which would otherwise suffer social and economicdisadvantage”. I would not dissent from that definition.

The Clyde and HebridesFerry Services Public Service Contract requires CalMac Ferries Ltd to submit regularreports on performance (including reliability and punctuality) to the Scottish Government,to make summary information available to those attending the half-yearly consultationmeetings to be facilitated by the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS)and to publish the summary information in their annual report. CalMac Ferries willalso display monthly information on punctuality and reliability on each of theirroutes in the port offices and vessels as part of their Customer Services Undertaking.

Prior to finalisingthe service specification for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract, theformer administration undertook a consultation exercise in 2004-05 that sought viewson a range of issues, including“further changes to timetables and services which may benefit users”.

In considering the responses to that consultation exerciseI understand that the previous administration concluded that enhancements to thewinter timetable for Ardrossan to Brodick should be included in the final servicespecification. As a consequence, an additional return sailing on the route duringthe winter was added to the service specification included in the tender documentationfor the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services issued in December 2006.

In addition, in responseto requests from the local community, CalMac Ferries Ltd announced on 4 October 2007 that they will continue to provide a double vessel servicefor the summer timetable. Taken together these will provide enhanced summer andwinter timetables.

CalMac FerriesLtd has provided the following figures relating to the year ending 31 August2007:

(a) sailingscancelled but excluded from the route’s reliability figures – 113

(b) sailingscancelled and included in the route’s reliability figures – 2

(c) sailingsdelayed but excluded from the route’s punctuality figures – 425

(d) sailingsdelayed and included in the route’s punctuality figures – 174.

The sailingswhich are excluded from the reliability and punctuality figures are those wherea legitimate “relief event” prevented or delayed the sailing. Relief eventsrelate to factors that are beyond the operator’s control, such as adverseweather.

The Public ServiceContract between the Scottish ministers and CalMac Ferries Ltd for the deliveryof the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services includes a PerformanceRegime which penalises the operator if it does not operate services to the prescribedtimetables. However, the contract recognises that there will be situations wherecancellations or delays will be unavoidable or where they may be justified becauseof particular circumstances that can arise. In such cases, the penalty system isnot triggered. These circumstances are described as “Performance Relief Events”and include “Relief Events”, “Lifeline Service Relief” and “Upgrade Relief Events”.

The list ofperformance relief events is extensive and includes, for example, adverse weatherand tidal conditions, safety factors beyond the operator’s control and the holdingback of a sailing to await the arrival of a late running public transport servicethat is scheduled to connect with the sailing. However, it is intended that thestatistics that will be collected on punctuality and reliability will show boththe actual performance and the performance after the application of theperformance relief events.

I understand thatCalMac Ferries has accepted a block booking for a tanker on its 7am sailing fromArdrossan to Brodick on every weekday throughout the winter, returning on the 11amsailing each day. This should provide sufficient capacity to meet Arran’s needsfor gas oil, derv and kerosene over the winter months and should not have any impacton other ferry users. In terms of petrol supplies, I understand that there is currentlya significant stock of petrol held on the island. However, top-ups can be delivered,as required, using CalMac’s winter service between Tarbert on the mainland and Lochranzaon Arran.

The categories ofpeople who qualify for concessionary travel on CalMac Ferries Limited’sservices are as follows:

blind people;

children, and

disabled people.

people holding:

Some categories of British Rail Identity andTravel Facility Cards;

Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar travel schemeconcession cards;

former Scottish Transport Group privilegepasses;

some categories of former British Railactive and retired employee passes;

Highland Council Travel Scheme Cards;

National Entitlement Cards who areresident in designated island areas;

Strathclyde Partnership for Transportconcessionary travel scheme cards;

people purchasingreturn tickets for journeys originating at certain island ports;

young peopleeligible for the Scottish Government Young Persons Travel Scheme, and

Staff of CalMacFerries Ltd and some associated companies and their dependents.

A number of theconcessions apply only to specified routes and/or to particular ticket types (e.g.passenger only, not vehicles). In addition, some concessions are restricted toa designated number of journeys in the course of a year.

In additionCalMac Ferries Ltd offers discounted rates on Island Hopscotch, Island Rover,multi-journey, Freedom of Scotland and group tickets, as well as on throughtickets for rail and ferry journeys. These are available to all travellers.

The specific informationrequested is not centrally available.

However, estimatesof childhood obesity derived from a sample of children aged two to 15 years, areavailable at Scotland level for the years 1998 and 2003 from the Scottish Health Survey 2003 (See Table 5.7 on page 125).

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/25145024/50271.In addition, statisticson obesity in children are available from the Child Health Surveillance Programme.Data from those boards that record findings using the electronic child health systems,CHSP-Pre School and CHSP-School, are available at the following link http://www.isdscotland.org/child_obesity(Click on “obesity statistics” to access a list of available tables and charts).

The specific datarequested is not available from 1967 at local authority level as there is insufficientpostcode detail recorded in the earlier years. However, abortion data is availablefrom 1983 by local council area. This information is available in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. numbers 43832 and 43833).Totals for Scotland from 1967 are available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/1918.html.

The specific datarequested is not available at local authority level as there is insufficient postcodedetail recorded. However, diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) fromScottish Genito-Urinary Medicine (GUM) clinics are available at Scotland level and are presented in the following table. It shouldbe noted that STIs are increasingly diagnosed in settings other than GUM, e.g.general practice and family planning clinics, and that details of these dataare not collected centrally.

SexuallyTransmitted Infections Diagnosed in Scottish GUM Clinics, 1967-2006

Year	Acute STIs									Other STIs
	Syph	Gon	Chlam	Herp	Wart	NSGI	Tric	HIV	Oth Ac	Acq syph	herp 2	wart 2	Oth STI
1967	140	3,036	n/a	n/a	n/a	2,098	1,369	n/a	3,147	128	n/a	n/a	n/a
1968	174	3,228	n/a	n/a	n/a	2,148	1,369	n/a	3,652	132	n/a	n/a	n/a
1969	109	3,533	n/a	n/a	n/a	2,487	1,541	n/a	4,194	116	n/a	n/a	n/a
1970	103	3,879	n/a	n/a	n/a	2,730	1,427	n/a	4,828	106	n/a	n/a	n/a
1971	99	4,768	n/a	n/a	n/a	3,682	1,602	n/a	5,609	98	n/a	n/a	n/a
19721	80	4,817	n/a	320	1,515	4,302	1,646	n/a	637	93	n/a	n/a	n/a
1973	89	5 250	n/a	312	1,713	4,874	1,998	n/a	720	76	n/a	n/a	n/a
1974	71	5,110	n/a	341	1,962	5,074	1,665	n/a	678	73	n/a	n/a	n/a
1975	96	4,841	n/a	412	2,051	5,068	1,455	n/a	713	68	n/a	n/a	n/a
1976	147	4,864	n/a	411	2,160	5,281	1,396	n/a	708	65	n/a	n/a	n/a
1977	159	5,528	n/a	493	2,342	6,094	1,599	n/a	811	68	n/a	n/a	n/a
1978	187	5,135	n/a	435	2,207	6,068	1,477	n/a	838	61	n/a	n/a	n/a
1979	149	4,937	n/a	510	2,122	6,640	1,199	n/a	804	58	n/a	n/a	n/a
1980	139	4,856	n/a	482	2,385	6,626	1,119	n/a	916	65	n/a	n/a	n/a
1981	131	4,592	n/a	507	2,534	7,376	931	n/a	940	84	n/a	n/a	n/a
1982	93	5,096	n/a	622	2,681	8,151	942	n/a	1,026	103	n/a	n/a	n/a
1983	98	4,916	n/a	849	3,122	8,452	880	n/a	991	77	n/a	n/a	n/a
1984	89	4,507	n/a	852	3,582	9,298	788	n/a	1,037	88	n/a	n/a	n/a
1985	66	4,691	n/a	949	4,351	8,702	847	n/a	993	48	n/a	n/a	n/a
1986	37	3,921	n/a	1,005	5,733	9,238	704	n/a	940	73	n/a	n/a	n/a
1987	33	2,536	n/a	841	6,314	7,493	578	n/a	764	59	n/a	n/a	n/a
1988	24	1,572	n/a	798	6,257	5,835	500	n/a	765	44	n/a	n/a	n/a
1989	17	983	n/a	778	5,976	5,635	309	26	691	44	n/a	n/a	n/a
19902	24	848	1 729	840	6,137	3,398	221	83	817	38	n/a	n/a	n/a
19913	10	856	1 940	576	4,590	3,427	223	60	745	23	195	1,769	n/a
1992	12	604	1 745	602	4,667	3,019	156	58	616	29	202	1,698	n/a
1993	7	442	1 736	592	4,531	2,731	144	71	603	17	212	1,782	n/a
1994	6	272	1 732	677	4,700	2,869	102	83	580	15	205	1,781	n/a
19954	5	394	1 551	829	4,633	2,340	106	63	580	20	322	2,571	9
1996	21	448	1 770	896	4,962	2,006	102	46	668	12	472	2,840	14
1997	15	409	2 138	849	5,329	2,142	104	40	664	22	479	2,992	18
1998	8	389	2 662	827	5,366	1,933	107	54	731	20	568	3,649	20
1999	12	511	3 365	939	5,382	2,116	91	64	759	18	585	3,516	19
2000	22	697	3 728	898	5,290	1,912	72	36	764	15	630	3,383	12
2001	24	740	4 849	1,090	5,567	2,090	121	47	734	24	724	3,275	22
2002	51	690	5 640	1,053	5,602	2,265	116	50	699	37	774	2,991	14
2003	75	743	6 450	1,243	5,794	2,033	124	48	851	33	762	3,042	20
2004	189	760	7 090	1,283	6,269	2,103	127	110	856	32	860	3,259	27
2005	188	834	8 095	1,332	6,451	2,013	127	111	987	47	836	3,403	12
2006	246	896	8 832	1,390	6,891	1,909	163	88	1,046	40	852	3,904	18

Source: VR1, ISD(D)5& STISS.

Key:

Syph Infectious syphilis

Gon Gonorrhoea

Chlam Chlamydia

Herp Genital herpes,1st episode

Wart Genital warts,1st episode

NSGI Non specificgenital infection (non-chlamydial after 1989)

Tric Trichomoniasis

HIV HIV infection,newly diagnosed

Oth Ac Other acuteSTI

Acq syph Other acquired/congenitalsyphilis

Herp 2 Genital herpes,recurrence

Wart 2 Genital warts,recurrence

Oth STI Other STI

Notes:

1. Genital warts andgenital herpes identified separately. Previously part of “Other acute STI”.

2. Chlamydia identifiedseparately. Previously part of “NSGI”.

3. Recurrent genitalherpes and genital warts identified separately. Prior to this, numbers recordedprobably included both new and recurrent infections.

4. Revised codingfrom 01.04.1995. Comparisons with previous years should be made with caution.