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: S6W-01200

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 July 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 23 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00824 by Graeme Dey on 28 June 2021, what the (a) passenger and (b) vehicle capacity is of each vessel listed after the one-metre physical distancing requirement is taken into account.

Further to question S6W-00824, the constrained passenger and vehicle carrying capacity with 1 metre mitigations in place for the vessels listed, are detailed in the following table.

Vessel	Passenger Capacity (1m)	Vehicle Capacity **	Deck Space (metres)
MV Caledonian Isles	276	92 PCU	150 m
MV Coruisk *	150 #	35 PCU	70 m
MV Isle of Arran *	79	55 PCU	103 m
MV Isle of Mull	218	66 PCU	150 m
MV Loch Seaforth	304	130 PCU	372 m
MV Finlaggan	206	79 PCU	180 m
MV Herbridean Isles	118	60 PCU	125 m

* Summer timetable only

# This includes MCA dispensation allowing 100 passengers to remain in their vehicles on the car deck

** Maximum capacity for cars, this can vary dependant on operational requirements and if mezzanine deck is deployed (where applicable)

Physical distancing does not restrain the deck capacity, either in metre or PCU (passenger car unit). The limitations is on passenger capacity. Vehicle capacity will vary dependant on the combination of type of vehicles and number of occupants per individual vehicle.

Question reference: S6W-00828

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 7 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its policy is on making the Road Equivalent Tariff subsidy available to Pentland Ferries’ private routes, across the Pentland Firth.

The Scottish Government remains committed to reducing fares on Northern Isles ferry routes.

Following engagement with European Commission officials in 2019, Transport Scotland officials were developing proposals to introduce Road Equivalent Tariff. This work was rightly paused in early 2020, while resources were pivoted to deal with the Covid outbreak, however work has recently resumed.

Engagement between Transport Scotland officials and ferry operators has taken place and will continue as the work progresses.

Question reference: S6W-00830

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 7 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many crew are included in the time charter for the MV Pentalina, and who they are employed by.

Question reference: S6W-00825

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 7 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what advice it took from members of the Ferry Industry Advisory Group on (a) chartering additional ferry capacity, and (b) time chartering the MV Pentalina from Pentland Ferries on the Clyde and Hebrides routes operation, which is under contract with CalMac Ferries.

Question reference: S6W-00826

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 1 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with CalMac, regarding the extension of collective bargaining agreements with (a) RMT and (b) Nautilus International, to cover all crew members on ferries chartered to increase capacity on the contract for Clyde and Hebrides ferry services.

Collective bargaining agreements are a matter for CalMac, its employees and the recognised trades unions. In the case of any additional ferries secured by CalMac through a “time charter”, the crews of these vessels are not employed by CalMac and are not covered by collective bargaining agreements which are currently in place with RMT and Nautilus. Any agreement with the Unions would be a matter for the vessel operator in that instance.

Question reference: S6W-00814

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 30 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its former senior (a) civil servants and (b) agency staff have sought its approval in each of the last five years to take up a position with another employer, and how many times this approval was granted.

The number of Senior Civil Servants working in core Scottish Government and its Agencies who have requested approval under the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) rules in the last 5 years is provided in the following table:

Year	Number of Senior Civil Servants who applied	Number of applications approved	Lobbying ban or other restrictions imposed
2017-18	6	6	3
2018-19	4	4	1
2019-20	8	8	2
2020-21	7	7	1
2021 to date	2*	1	0

* Note: One application was subsequently withdrawn as the proposed appointment was not made

Question reference: S6W-00815

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 30 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many of its former ministers have sought its approval in each of the last five years to take up a position with another employer, and how many times this approval was granted.

Question reference: S6W-00820

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 28 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) value and (b) full potential duration is of the time charter agreement that it has signed with Pentland Ferries Ltd for the MV Pentalina, for services on contracted Clyde and Hebrides routes.

Question reference: S6W-00822

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 28 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its assessment is of the impact that chartering the MV Pentalina from Pentland Ferries has had on industrial relations at CalMac.

To improve the resilience of ferry services serving island and remote mainland communities, we are exploring opportunities for chartering additional tonnage including the temporary time charter of the MV Pentalina. Industrial relations are a matter for CalMac Ferries Ltd, its employees and the recognised trades unions. I understand discussions have been taking place between CalMac and its local Union representatives on these matters.

Question reference: S6W-00819

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 28 June 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the time chartering of the MV Pentalina will have on the annual level of subsidy that CalMac receives under the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services contract.