Chamber and committees

In accordance with the franchise, a Remedial Agreement has been entered into between Scottish Ministers and Abellio ScotRail to contractualise the Remedial Plan. The contractual terms of the Remedial Agreement between Scottish Ministers and Abellio ScotRail contractually commits Abellio ScotRail to deliver a series of time bound commitments that are designed to improve the performance of Abellio ScotRail with a view to them exiting Breach Performance Level for the Suburban East and Express Other PPM sector by May 2020. In the event ScotRail fails to deliver on any of the contractual commitments as set out and programmed in the Remedial Agreement, this will constitute an Event of Default under the Franchise Agreement.

Section 129 of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 places a duty on Scottish Ministers to review and publish a report on the operation of the seal licensing regime every five years. The next review is due to report on 1 September 2020.

The review will cover all aspects of the operation of the seal licencing system.

The number of doctors in training in Dumfries and Galloway has remained at 94 each year since 2015, rising to 95 in 2018-19. The 95 covers all Foundation, Core and Specialty trainees including General Practice.

There are 1700 Foundation Year (FY) doctors, split equally between FY1 and FY2.

In Scotland, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) has operational responsibility for the recruitment and monitoring of trainee doctors in GMC-approved training programmes, which it organises in collaboration with NHSScotland Boards.

On an agreed basis posts are distributed to the 4 NES regions as follows: West (50%), South-East (25%), East (10%) and North (15%). The posts are proportionately allocated across the constituent NHS Boards within each of these regions:

The figures have not yet been released as they are still being audited. They will be published on the Transport Scotland Website in approximately October 2019. The figures for 2017-18 can be found here https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/annual-report-and-accounts-for-the-year-ended-31-march-2018/

In accordance with the franchise, a Remedial Agreement has been entered into between Scottish Ministers and Abellio ScotRail to contractualise the Remedial Plan. The Remedial Agreement sets out the terms for implementing commitments contained in the Remedial Plan and is effective up to 30 May 2020. This accords with timescales for the completion of the contractual commitments in the Remedial Agreement and aligns with ScotRail’s forecasts of when ScotRail expect to exit Breach Performance Level for the Cancellation and PPM Benchmarks in respect of relevant sectors.

In the event ScotRail fails to deliver on any of the contractual commitments as set out and programmed in the Remedial Agreement, this would constitute a default.

The following table details the number of services which failed to stop (skip stopped) during each 4 weekly period from Period 12 17-18 to Period 12 18-19 and the overall percentage.

The Scottish Government consulted in 2017 on the recommendations made by Lord Bonomy in his review of the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002. We expect to consult on any changes to the law on fox hunting that we may propose.

The Scottish Government will announce its plans for future legislative programmes in due course.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited, on behalf of the Scottish Government, negotiated the terms for the purchase of the MV Helliar and MV Hildasay with the vessels owners, Fortress. The purchase of these freighters was concluded on 25 March 2019.

The terms for purchasing the MV Helliar and MV Hildasay are commercially sensitive and release of this information would be in breach of the confidentiality agreement with Fortress. However, we believe this transaction represents good value for the taxpayer and will deliver significant ongoing operational savings.

As part of the National Transport Strategy (NTS) Review, Transport Scotland is working with stakeholders to review an extension of discounts on public transport available to those under the age of 26 (this incorporates a cost and benefits appraisal on extending free bus travel as any changes to concessionary travel schemes must fully consider financial sustainability). The initial stages of scoping out this work has just begun with a view to the outcomes informing thinking on actions which Government will take forward to deliver the NTS (due for publication at the end of 2019).