Chamber and committees

In March 2018, Keith Brown, the then Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work advised Parliament that we are committed to opening sections of the road in advance wherever possible but it may be prudent to anticipate a late autumn 2018 date for the overall project opening. I am pleased to advise that the 7km section, between Parkhill (Goval) and Blackdog, opened to traffic on 27 June 2018 and I anticipate further sections of the new road to be available in the coming weeks.

Transport Scotland will continue to work with the contractor to ensure the project is delivered at the earliest opportunity.

I look forward to the considerable benefits being delivered when the remaining sections of the AWPR open in the coming months.

We anticipate that the re-planning exercise will be completed by the end of August. The Programme will then be subject to a robust, independent deliverability assessment, before an announcement is made on a revised date for integration.

The Scottish Government has made clear that the integration of British Transport Police in Scotland into Police Scotland is a major programme which must be achieved in an effective, efficient and inclusive manner to safeguard the interests of rail users, the rail industry, the general public, rail staff, and police officers and staff. The Joint Programme Board overseeing the integration, which comprises all partners, seeks to ensure as far as possible that there is no detriment to railway policing in Scotland or the rest of Great Britain.

The re-planning exercise that is currently underway has been complemented by a refresh and strengthening of Programme governance arrangements. These arrangements will include robust assessments of risks and costs throughout the delivery of the integration Programme.

Until the re-planning exercise is complete, it would be premature to make comment on the costs of integration, which will evolve as the Programme develops and decisions are reached.

Our first priority is always public safety and our risk appetite, as agreed through the Joint Programme Board, remains low. Until the re-planning exercise is completed, it would be premature to make comment on ICT requirements and costs.

The development of railway policing agreements is on-going. There are interdependencies with other parts of the Programme, for example the cost allocation model, and so there will be a clearer picture on timescales once the‎ re-planning exercise is completed.

The Mobilisation Transition and Transformation (MTT) Programme was established to: coordinate the requirements for operational integration; to design and implement a transition plan for full integration at 1 April 2019; and to consider future transformation of the service. The detailed work it undertook informed the decision to delay integration, having established that significant operational aspects would not be ready by April 2019. Following that decision, and to complement the re-planning exercise, a decision was taken by Joint Programme Board partners to refresh and strengthen the Programme’s governance arrangements, which has led to the creation of a cross-organisational Programme Management Office.

A critical path for the re-plan has been developed and detailed workshops are now underway. We anticipate that the re-planning exercise will be completed by the end of August, at which point the Programme will be subject to a robust, independent deliverability assessment in mid-September.

All those involved in delivering this change have a shared interest in arranging events that are genuinely meaningful for the BTP staff and officers who want to hear updates on the change that affects them directly. For that to happen, the Joint Programme Board (JPB) needs to secure maximum attendance from senior leadership across all partner organisations involved in the process.

When it became clear that provisional dates for these events would not achieve that aim, JPB partners took a collective decision to seek alternatives.

The JPB is now working collaboratively to initiate a series of events beginning in June. Dates will be communicated in advance to give officers and staff sufficient notice to enable attendance. Other new, regular communication activity will complement these events.

All our work going forward centres on the need to listen more to those involved in the change and keep them involved and informed.

The Inspectorate of Prosecution recommended that COPFS should work towards a system of notifying all victims of decisions not to prosecute, whether through the use of IT solutions or otherwise.

The Inspectorate recognised that the rights and expectations of victims would require to be balanced with a proportionate response, that notifying all the victims of decisions not to prosecute has resource implications and that IT solutions may assist.

The Inspectorate’s recommendation has been accepted by Law Officers. COPFS will now explore possible approaches to notifying all victims of decisions not to prosecute, including possible IT solutions.

The tripartite working group – comprising representatives of Police Scotland, CoSLA and the Scottish Government - met on 8 March. The meeting was chaired by Police Scotland. There are not currently plans to publish the minutes.

It was a positive meeting at which a range of issues was discussed, including the importance of stakeholder engagement. The group agreed that its initial focus should be to work collaboratively to reach a shared understanding of the issues in relation to traffic regulation at pre-planned events. Work is on-going in that connection. This will give further shape to the next steps of the group. No date is currently set for the next meeting of the group, which is due to be hosted by the local authority representatives.

Police Scotland have advised the group that they would revert to pre-existing arrangements while the work of the tripartite group is on-going.