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-14173

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the social and economic benefits of clearing and salting pavements and cycle ways during periods of adverse weather.

The impacts of disruptive winter weather on transport cover a wide spectrum – from the direct economic costs of lost output if people cannot get to work and of freight vehicle delays, to the personal time lost from travel delays and journeys not made at all, additional road vehicle collisions, the personal impact of slips, trips and falls, as well as the costs to the health service, hardship endured by those dependent on access by carers and service providers, and other categories.

Footways, footpaths and cycle facilities alongside the trunk road network are organised into three categories: A, B and C. These categories are based on a wide range of factors including location, pedestrian flow, social inclusion and accessibility.

Salt treatments are undertaken on all Category A footways, footpaths and cycle facilities when temperatures are forecast to fall to less than or equal to 1 degree Celsius, or when snow conditions are expected.

Category A and B footways are required to be cleared of snow and ice by 8 am, or within two hours of snow ceasing to fall during the period 6 am hours to 6 pm. Category C footways are to be cleared of snow and ice by 5 pm the following weekday.

In 2014, Transport Scotland (TS) outlined an approach to better understand the economic welfare impact that occurred in the country during the winter of 2010-11. The results stated clearly the benefit of well-targeted investment in winter maintenance activities, however, there were key data gaps with judgement employed. Whilst this currently does not include footways and cycleways, the same principles apply.

This research has been ongoing for the past three years and the information elicited from this analysis has given a clearer indication of the saving made through current levels of investment in winter maintenance activities and provided an understanding of individual event performance as well as macro level network details.

Further analysis of the results is ongoing during winter 2017-18 and will offer some insights into how the data can be used for planning and investment decisions.

Question reference: S5W-14186

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13792 by Humza Yousaf on 18 January 2018, whether it considers there is a difference between a guard and a ticket examiner and, if so, what the difference is, and how many ScotRail services ran without a (a) guard and (b) second member of staff in 2017.

I can confirm there is a difference between the roles and responsibilities of a Guard (Conductor) and a Ticket Examiner. Although both have several aspects of their roles which are identical, a Guard has the additional responsibility for opening and closing the doors and signalling to the Driver that it is safe to proceed. A Ticket Examiner does not have these responsibilities.

Guards are always the second member of staff on board Diesel services. Diesel services will be cancelled if a guard is not available to travel. Ticket Examiners in the main operate on Electric services but can also be a third member of staff on Diesel services if required. Electric services can and do operate when, on the few occasions, a Ticket Examiner is not available to travel.

NB - When electrification rolls out to Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk High, Edinburgh/Glasgow to Dunblane/Stirling/Alloa, Edinburgh to Glasgow via Shotts and North Berwick/Dunbar lines, these services will be operated with a Guard who will retain the same roles and responsibilities they currently have as described above.

The answers to the additional questions are as follows.

A) - NIL - a Diesel train will not operate without a Guard on board.

B) - From January 2017 until December 2017 there was approximately 1.09% of ScotRail services operated without a Ticket Examiner on board for all or part of a journey .

Question reference: S5W-14120

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of ScotRail restricting the times that off-peak tickets are sold at stations.

The current restrictions on purchasing off-peak tickets are the same as they were in the previous ScotRail Franchise, prior to 1 April, 2015, and these restrictions are based on the departure times of services, rather than arrival times. For example, within Strathclyde, off peak fares are available for travel on any train except those timed to depart before 9am (Monday – Friday). On the Highland Mainline, off peak fares are available for travel on any train except those timed to depart before 8am (Monday – Friday).

Question reference: S5W-14121

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 15 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding ScotRail charging peak-time fares for tickets bought on board off-peak trains.

The National Rail Conditions of Travel (NRCoT) set out the rights and responsibilities of train companies and passengers when travelling on the National Rail network. Key responsibilities of passengers include that they must purchase, where possible, a valid ticket before they board a train service on the National Rail. Key responsibilities of train companies include that they must provide a range of ways in which passengers can buy a ticket before their journey and will ensure that they are treated fairly if they are unable to purchase a ticket because advertised facilities are unavailable. Any passenger without a ticket may be charged the full fare by on-train staff.

Full fare in this context means that a passenger will not be able to take advantage of any off-peak fares, railcard discounts or cheaper day fares if they board a train having not made use of an available ticket facility at stations.

Question reference: S5O-01789

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 February 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government regarding safeguarding the value of Scottish university staff pensions.

Question reference: S5W-14015

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government further to the answers to questions S5W-13796 and S5W-13797 by Humza Yousaf on 18 January 2018, how many SQUIRE audits were carried out on ScotRail services in 2017; how many failures were recorded, broken down by type of failure, and what the cumulative financial penalty was.

Number of trains audited in 2017	Number of train toilets audited	Number of fails recorded	Penalties accrued
2404	3092	686	-£225870

NB: It is important to note that a significant number of fails were recorded for the maintenance record card being out of date as opposed to a fault with the actual facility.

Number of trains audited in 2017	Number of catering facilities audited	Number of fails recorded	Penalties accrued
2404	323	18	-£15773

NB: Only a small proportion of daily rail services have catering facilities on board

Question reference: S5W-14038

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13793 by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2018, how many services are represented in the statement that "0.78 percent of ScotRail services were subject to skip-stopping", broken down by station skipped.

In 2017, the number of ScotRail services subject to skip-stopping was 5,968 trains, out of 765,458 services planned to run. The Scottish Government does not hold a breakdown of the number of times that individual stations were skipped.

The member may be aware that ScotRail has recently appointed a railway industry expert to undertake an independent review of train service performance and propose steps for improvement, and aim to reduce the number of incidents of skip-stopping.

Question reference: S5W-14037

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13795 by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2018, how many seats 0.35% of capacity represents.

Question reference: S5W-14036

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 6 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13801 by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2018, by what date it will publish the review of its National Transport Strategy.

Question reference: S5W-13948

Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 1 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13520 by Keith Brown on 16 January 2018, whether it is the cabinet secretary's position that he has no responsibility for the oversight of both bodies.