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-01542

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 July 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the news release issued by CalMac Ferries on 24 August 2020, at which location dry dock maintenance work was carried out on each ferry, and how much of CalMac's expenditure was spent on procuring this work on each vessel.

The yards which CalMac Ferries Ltd use to undertake dry dock maintenance work for the vessels in the fleet is an operational matter for them to determine.

CalMac Ferries Ltd procure their contracts in a fair and open competition manner, allowing an award to the bidder that offers the best value for money. CalMac Ferries Ltd publish details pertaining to the contracts on the Public Contracts Scotland website.

CalMac Ferries Ltd awarded contracts to Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders Ltd, Dales Marine Services and Ardmaleish Boatbuilding Co Ltd.

Contract details are available by following the links: https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=DEC401718 and https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=DEC401701 .

Question reference: S6W-01545

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 July 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government by what date it expects the MV Coruisk to re-enter service on the Clyde and Hebrides ferry network.

Question reference: S6W-01416

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 July 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 August 2021

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-00828 by Graeme Dey on 7 July 2021, whether it will provide a breakdown of the resources that were used to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak, and what resources have subsequently been directed back.

The resources referred to in the previous answer related to staffing resources within Transport Scotland.

Those officials who had been asked to respond to the challenges presented by the pandemic to our transport network and the impacts on Islands communities are now returning to normal duties, and has been made clear, a priority has been restarting the work taking forward identifying potential options for reducing fares on ferry services across the Pentland Firth.

Question reference: S6W-01443

Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 July 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 23 July 2021

To ask the Scottish Government for what reasons the Cycle to Work scheme has not been made available to ScotRail employees for 2021-22.

Question reference: S6W-01199

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-00829 by Graeme Dey on 28 June 2021, whether it has discussed with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency the (a) existence and (b) functioning of the onboard safety committee on the MV Pentalina.

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-01198

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-00829 by Graeme Dey on 28 June 2021, what recent advice it has received from the (a) Maritime and Coastguard Agency and (b) other regulatory authorities on the safety of the MV Pentalina to operate on routes in the current contract for Clyde and Hebrides ferry services.

Question reference: S6W-01201

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 what the (a) passenger and (b) vehicle carrying capacity is on the MV (a) Pentalina and (b) Alfred after the requirement for one-metre physical distancing is taken into account.

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.