- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide opportunities for ports to apply to become enterprise areas.
Answer
The Scottish Government extended the designation of Scotland’s current network of Enterprise Areas until March 2022. Informed by findings from a survey we commissioned in November 2020 regarding place-based economic initiatives, and the report of a Scottish Enterprise evaluation of Enterprise Areas, the future format for Enterprise Areas will be confirmed later this year.
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government further to the answer to question S5W-35465 by Michael Matheson on 9 March 2021, whether it will provide an update on the electrification projects on the (a) East Kilbride and (b) Barrhead railway lines.
Answer
Network Rails Contractor, SPL, is undertaking on-site activities between Muirhouse South Junction and Busby Junction as part of the East Kilbride / Barrhead Enhancements project. This includes piling and the construction of steelwork foundations to support future electrification.
This demonstrates that positive progress is being made with early construction activities whilst the necessary development work for the complete project is progressed.
Future updates can be sourced via the dedicated project pages in the Scotland’s Railway website:-
https://scotlandsrailway.com/projects/east-kilbride-enhancements
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 16 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether Transport Scotland’s growth target for rail freight will be achieved by 2024.
Answer
Network Rail is on track to meet our innovative growth target for rail freight. Despite the health pandemic, rail freight demand has held up well and 216 new freight trains ran on the network in Scotland in the past 12 months. Supported by Scottish Government and third party investment more new freight services in Scotland are planned in the next 18 months, in addition to new cross border express logistics services. Modal shift to rail will play a key part in decarbonising the overall transport network to meet our ambitious climate change targets.
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 May 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 10 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many delays to ferry services operated by CalMac have been caused by mechanical complications in the last five years.
Answer
The number of times a mechanical problem has resulted in a delay to ferry services operated by CalMac Ferries Ltd between October 2016 to March 2021 is detailed in the following table.
Period | Scheduled Sailings | No. of Sailings Delayed | % of sailings delayed |
Contract Year 1 Oct 2016 – Sept 2017 | 156,820 | 213 | 0.14 |
Contract Year 2 Oct 2017 – Sept 2018 | 163,892 | 198 | 0.12 |
Contract Year 3 Oct 2018 – Sept 2019 | 164,161 | 249 | 0.15 |
Contract Year 4 Oct 2019 – Sept 2020 | 119,651 | 272 | 0.23 |
Contract Year 5 Oct 2020 – March 2021 | 68,966 | 86 | 0.12 |
TOTAL | 673,490 | 1,018 | 0.15 |
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 June 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to support local government in the delivery of community services.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 16 June 2021
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 May 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 7 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of the travel budget will be spent on active travel in the next five years.
Answer
Full details of active travel funding for the next five years has not yet been agreed and will form part of the annual Budget process. The Active Travel budget for 2021-22 increased by £15 million to £115.5 million, and in the Programme for Government 2020 we committed to spending over £500 million on active travel over the next five years. This Government has given a further commitment to spending 10% of the Transport Scotland capital budget on active travel by the end of the parliament.
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 May 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 4 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to put the role of the Active Nation Commissioner on a statutory footing.
Answer
The Active Nation Commissioner, Lee Craigie, was appointed to her role in December 2018 for a 3 year term. There are currently no plans to put the role on a statutory footing.
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 May 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government when provisions in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 to allow local transport authorities to propose bus services will be implemented.
Answer
Following a necessary pause to the implementation of Part 3 (Bus Services) of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 last year owing to the reallocation of national and local government resources to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, work resumed with a virtual stakeholder event held in March this year.
The outputs of that and ongoing engagement will feed into a consultation paper for launch later this year. That will inform the development of secondary legislation and supporting guidance. The timetable for the introduction of secondary legislation will be dependent, to an extent, on parliamentary process.
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 May 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 June 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on a solution to prevent the build-up of ice on the Queensferry Crossing.
Answer
Ice accretion and precipitation sensors were installed on the towers and deck in 2020. Weather forecasting, bridge monitoring and traffic management procedures have been continuously improved, and the mechanism of ice accumulation specific to the Queensferry Crossing is now better understood. A working group comprising Transport Scotland, the bridge Operating Company BEAR Scotland and a number of expert consultants has been established. A number of possible solutions are under consideration in terms of their feasibility.
- Asked by: Graham Simpson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 March 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 18 March 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many professionally-qualified building control officers
have been employed by each local authority in each year since 2016.
Answer
Scottish Government launched the Building Standards Workforce Strategy on 1 October 2020, which includes an annual workforce data collection. The number of professionally qualified staff across the whole workforce has increased from 264 in 2019 to 270 in 2020. Only local authorities as employers will be able to provide this information from 2016 to 2018.
The lead officers involved in delivery of the building standards verification service are senior building standards surveyors and building standards surveyors. The data shows there were 258 lead officers in 2019 and an increase to 262 in 2020.
Officer role | 2019 | 2020 |
Senior Surveyor | 49 | 47 |
Building Standards Surveyor | 209 | 215 |
Total | 258 | 262 |
The number of professionally qualified staff is expected to rise in the short to medium term as a result of career progression and the successful recruitment of graduate surveyors into the profession. In 2020 there were 113 people in junior roles who offer potential to become professionally qualified.
Officer role | 2019 | 2020 |
Assistant Building Standards Surveyor | 47 | 46 |
Building Inspector | 35 | 37 |
Graduate Surveyor | 7 | 13 |
Building Standards Technician | 20 | 17 |
Total | 109 | 113 |
The number of qualified staff across the whole workforce has increased during the 2019-20 period.
Qualification level (All Workforce) | 2019 | 2020 |
Degree-level (SCQF level 9 to 11) | 310 | 316 |
HNC/ HND (SCQF level 7 to 8) | 140 | 149 |
Total | 450 | 465 |
From the total number of staff employed, the data indicates that 264 held membership of a construction sector professional body in 2019 and that figure rose to 270 in 2020.
