Chamber and committees

The deregulation of the bus market began with the Transport Act 1985 and, in Scotland, the Transport (Scotland) Act 1989. Publically owned companies were split into geographical areas which were then sold to private operators and companies. The only exception in Scotland was Lothian buses, which remained a council-run bus operation.

The co-creative process on the A9 Dualling Pass of Birnam to Tay Crossing section has been designed as a trial in conjunction with the local community group. The process itself is around 3 months into its implementation. Whilst it is intended to carry out an evaluation at the end of the process it is currently too early to consider the terms of reference of such a review.

We recently completed a stakeholder consultation exercise with industry and local authorities as part of our overall procurement strategy for the next generation (5G) of trunk road maintenance contracts. This is currently being considered in conjunction with a review of our operational requirements to ensure they continue to be sufficiently robust. As with the current 4G contracts, we will continue to engage with stakeholders as appropriate throughout the 5G procurement process and will also meet with key groups and attend industry events. The consultation process has also helped identify ways to enhance visibility of opportunities for the construction market and to better engage with potential bidders and the wider supplier chain, including SMEs to deliver an efficient and effective outcome.

The general principle for the current A9 and A96 dualling programmes includes the provision of grade separated junctions where possible, rationalisation of the number of direct accesses and junctions, and ensuring that there are no gaps in the central reserve in order to provide as safe a route as possible for all users.

As part of the on-going programme of regular engagement on both dualling programmes any feedback we receive, including any suggestions in relation to junction provision, will be taken into account.

Under the terms of section 124 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, certain premises, including airside establishments at six designated airports in Scotland, are exempted from the requirement to hold a premises licence in order to sell alcohol.

The Scottish Government and Transport Scotland are in regular contact with stakeholders to monitor the overall effectiveness of existing legislation. However, there are no plans to publish a formal report on the matter.

Transport Scotland held a workshop on 23 June 2015 with its road operating companies to discuss the scope of the research.

More recently, Transport Scotland and Vaisala jointly submitted and presented a paper on the "Performance Index Analysis Results" at the World Road Association Winter Road Congress in Gdansk in February 2018.

The paper is a summary of the three years of our collaborative research and demonstrates the power of analysing weather station data after the fact to gain insight and knowledge about both climate and winter service performance. The longer this data is collected the more useful it will be in being able to engage an evidence based approach to investment and the return on investment that it brings. A copy of the submitted paper can be made available, if required.

Through membership of Technical Project Boards, technical specialists from Transport Scotland conduct peer reviews of new and updated DMRB documents to ensure that they are suitable for use on the Scottish trunk road network. National Annexes can be developed where there are design requirements that relate specifically to Scotland only.

Senior representatives from Transport Scotland also attend regular Chief Highway Engineer meetings with their counterparts from England, Wales and Northern Ireland where the DMRB update is a standing agenda item.

The DMRB documents also require to be approved by the Chief Highway Engineer from each of the administrations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland before publication.

Transport Scotland has participated in the ROADEX project, which is a collaboration of northern European roads organisations whose aim is to share roads information and research. The project, which commenced in 1998, brought together private and public sector organisations from northern Finland, Norway, Scotland and Sweden. Other partners include The Highland Council, Forestry Commission Scotland and The Western Isles Council/Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar.

The project was created with part-funding by the EU Northern Periphery Programme to share experiences of managing low volume rural roads in harsh climates. The Network has undertaken research and shared knowledge in a number of areas, including road condition management and winter maintenance.

Transport Scotland also actively participates, alongside Nordic countries, in the Winter Technical Committee of the World Road Association (WRA) and the Road Safety Working Group of the Conference of European Road Directors (CEDR).