Chamber and committees

(a) Fatal casualties on the A9 between Perth and Inverness arising from accidents involving an HGV (approximately 50 metres north of the Inveralmond Roundabout to approximately 50 metres south of Raigmore Roundabout)

Source: Transport Scotland Accident Manager for years 2007 – 2016 and Fatal Accident Database for the year 2017

Note that the information provided is based on the figures available on 24 Jan 2018.

Transport Scotland only holds information provided by Police Scotland and is subject to change.

(b) Fatal casualties on all roads in Scotland arising from accidents involving an HGV

The statistics for Scotland are only available up to 2016 as data for 2017 are still being collected and quality assured. Full provisional data for the year will be published in Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland in June 2018. Final data for the year will be published in October 2018.

Network Rail has advised that there have been no fatalities on the Highland Main Line between Perth and Inverness involving a freight train in the last 10 years. Their figures show that there have been five fatalities in Scotland in the last 10 years that involved freight trains. All incidents were non-suspicious.

Tables 3.3, 7.12 and 7.13 in the publication Scottish Transport Statistics provide information about road freight statistics and rail freight statistics. The publication can be found here http://bit.ly/STS_alleditions Information below Scotland level is not held by the Scottish Government.

During the period 2014-2020, Scottish Natural Heritage has allocated approximately £267,000 plus around 270 days of staff time support to the two UNESCO biosphere reserves in Scotland. These are in Galloway and Southern Ayrshire and in Wester Ross.

The Scottish Government has committed £33,000 in match-funding to the Wester Ross Biosphere to support participation in a three-year EU-funded project ‘Sustainable Heritage Areas: Partnerships for Ecotourism’ (known as ‘SHAPE’), which also involves the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere. This project aims to enable communities, businesses and organisations to develop innovative approaches to eco-tourism initiatives which preserve, manage and create economic value from local assets.

Other funding and in-kind support to biospheres in Scotland is provided by local authorities and the University of the Highlands and Islands.

We recently completed an industry and stakeholder consultation exercise as part of our overall procurement strategy for the trunk road maintenance contracts. This is currently being considered in conjunction with a review of our operational requirements to inform the development of the next generation (5G) of contracts. We expect to have finalised our contract requirements and commenced the 5G procurement competition by the end of 2018.

An enquiry from the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention regarding the planning application submitted by Coul Links Ltd to the Highland Council for a golf course at Coul Links has been forwarded to the Scottish Government by the UK Government. The United Kingdom is a signatory (‘Contracting Party’ in Convention terms) to the Convention.

Under the Convention, Contracting Parties must pass on information if the ecological character of a Ramsar site has changed, is changing or is likely to change as the result of technological developments, pollution or other human interference. Should it be required, such information will be communicated through the UK Government to the Ramsar Secretariat at the appropriate time.

This Government is committed to creating the best possible business environment in a Scotland which is cleaner, greener and healthier. It is therefore important for government to engage with individuals, companies and organisations with an interest in economic development opportunities.

The Scottish Government encourages all those with views on the proposed development to make them known to Highland Council.

The First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership met for the first time on 17 January 2018. Further information can be found in the Scottish Government news release at: https://firstminister.gov.scot/ambition-on-human-rights/.

The group is chaired by Professor Alan Miller. The other members are Dr Katie Boyle, Prof Nicole Busby, Prof Paul Hunt, Dr Tobias Lock, Prof Elisa Morgera, Shelagh McCall QC, Prof Aoife Nolan and Judith Robertson (representing the Scottish Human Rights Commission).

The Group will undertake its work independently of government and has been asked to report, with recommendations, by the end of 2018.

The Reimbursement of Members’ Expenses Scheme enables Members to meet the costs of both landline and mobile phones through the Telecommunications and Office Cost Provisions.  Members have a variety of arrangements in place for landline provision including directly contracting with telecoms providers as well as provision through their landlords as part of their office lease.  Analysis of which communication options Members decide to offer their constituents, how that is provided and any impact on communications with constituents has therefore not been undertaken. 

The SPCB is continuously looking at ways to improve the options and services available to Members and to make efficient use of the provisions available.  We have recently finalised a contract with a new mobile phone provider which secures significantly lower tariffs and which will reduce the costs to both Members and the public purse.  We are also currently running a direct debit trial with utility providers that if successful we will look to extend to telecoms providers as well with the aim again of reducing costs for Members. The SPCB also negotiated preferential business rates for telecoms services with a major supplier to help reduce the cost of calls and consideration of the option to provide a centralised telecommunications service will be given before the end of the session.

Under the terms of the franchise, ScotRail reports the capacity it operates in terms of seats not provided, compared with the planned number of seats provided.

In the year ended 6 December 2017, the extent of under provision of seat capacity was 0.35 percent.