Chamber and committees

We aim to publish the findings of the review in July 2016 and to announce our response to its recommendations at the same time.

Officials from Transport Scotland meet the Scottish Road Works Commissioner on a regular basis, normally at least once per month. Transport Scotland also holds quarterly meetings of the 'Road Works Policy Development Group', which includes the commissioner and representatives from the wider road works community.

In addition to these regular meetings, there have been a number of additional meetings recently between the commissioner and officials to discuss the emerging findings of the independent review of the commissioner's office and functions.

The Transport Scotland road asset management plan sets out how Scotland's trunk road network is maintained strategically and efficiently in order to protect our assets and ensure maximum value for money from our road maintenance activities. Transport Scotland's programmed maintenance work plans are developed based on asset condition data, including results from regular inspections and annual machine-based surveys, such as Deflectograph and SCANNER.

SCANNER surveys make a number of measurements to describe the condition of the road surface, including rutting, cracking and ride quality. Deflectograph surveys are undertaken to assess the strength of the lower road layers and provide an estimate of the remaining useful life of the road. All trunk roads are also inspected at regular intervals to identify defects like potholes, which are then repaired by our operating companies within the strict timescales set-out in their contracts.

The Society of Chief Officers of Transportation Scotland (SCOTS) commission an annual SCANNER survey on behalf of all local authorities to allow them to assess the areas of road which require maintenance. The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places the statutory responsibility for local roads improvement, maintenance and repair with local road authorities. It is therefore the responsibility of Scottish local authorities to determine what resources they should allocate based on local needs and priorities. In 2016-17 the Scottish Government provided local authorities with total funding of over £10.3 billion this includes funding for road maintenance.

As part of the work of the Roads Collaboration Board and Strategic Action Group we regularly have discussions with representatives from SCOTS and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives on embedding best practice. In addition, road authorities have been working with industry partners to make positive changes to how road maintenance is undertaken, with focus on efficiency, collaboration and innovation.

The Scottish Government has committed to offer at least 30,000 new modern apprenticeship (MA) starts each year by 2020.

The first stage of this increase has been delivered - the 2015-16 target of 25,500 new MA opportunities has been exceeded with 25,818 starts delivered in 2015. The new target for 2016-17 of 26,000 MAs was announced on 29 February 2016.

Since the introduction of the 25,000 target in 2011-12, we have exceeded the required number of starts each year, even during the economic downturn. We delivered over 120,000 new opportunities in the last parliamentary term.

Because the programme is led by demand from employers to offer MA opportunities, it is not possible to determine the age, level, sector or gender of apprenticeships in advance.

However, I can advise that in 2015-16:

79% of starts were aged 16-24.

The majority (65%) of starts were in higher level apprenticeships (SVQ Level 3 or above)

The largest proportion of starts were in construction frameworks (19%).

41% of starts were female

Addressing under-representation in our MA programme is a key priority for the Scottish Government and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to address, in partnership with industry and delivery partners. The MA equalities action plan, published in December 2015, includes specific improvement targets for MA participation by black or minority ethnic, care leavers, disabled people and gender balance. The success of our MA programme has seen more than 128,000 people get an invaluable start to their career over the last five years and we want young women and men from all backgrounds to be able to seize these opportunities.