Chamber and committees

The Emergency Measures Agreement, which temporarily varied the terms of the franchise agreement with Serco Caledonian Sleepers Ltd, will expire on 28 February 2022.

A prior information notice (a technical measure that stems from the relevant procurement regulation) was issued in February 2021 to preserve the Scottish Government’s ability to award a temporary measures agreement from March 2022 should it be necessary at that stage to continue emergency measures type support. As the scale and pace of recovery from the impact of the pandemic remains uncertain, the need for such an award, and the duration of any award, is being kept under review.

The current Emergency Measures Agreement has been extended until the 28 February 2022. A prior information notice (a technical measure that stems from the relevant procurement regulation) was issued in February 2021 to preserve the Scottish Government’s ability to award a temporary measures agreement from March 2022 should it be necessary at that stage to continue emergency measures type support.

In advance of the expiry of the current Emergency Measures Agreement, the Scottish Government will consider the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the context of the Sleeper franchise and review the need for any temporary measures agreement.

As there are no current plans to deploy Operator of Last Resort arrangements for the Caledonian Sleeper Franchise, spending public money on analysing the costs of doing so would not represent good value.

Any such analysis would depend on the written proposals submitted by Serco Caledonian Sleepers Ltd, in the event it elected to exercise the contractual rebasing option after 1 April 2022.

The PIN was issued in February 2021 to preserve the Scottish Government’s ability to award a temporary measures agreement from March 2022 should it be necessary at that stage to continue emergency measures type support. As the scale and pace of recovery from the impact of the pandemic remains uncertain, the need for such an award, and the duration of any award, is being kept under review.

One of the benefits of the Single Building Assessment approach is that the outputs will be made available for multiple purposes. We will work out the best way to do this, in partnership with others, while taking necessary steps to protect private information and sensitive data.

No tenants or owner occupiers of high rise flats with high pressure laminate or aluminium composite materials are on the ministerial working group on building and fire safety. The Cladding Program stakeholder group does include an owner-occupier representative.

Our Single Building Assessment initial phase is ongoing with 25 buildings across Scotland. We do not expect any remediation will be required for the vast majority of high-rise or other buildings in Scotland.

We are working with owners and representatives to fund the Single Building Assessments in the pilot phase. All £97.1m received in consequentials will be spent on assessments and cladding remediation over the lifetime of the programme.

We do not expect the vast majority of buildings in Scotland to require remediation and the Single Building Assessment programme will give us the information to establish timescales for those that do.