Chamber and committees

The principal means of meeting the 2035 rail service net zero target will be to continue the Scottish Government’s rolling programme of electrification. Thanks to a programme of investment delivered by the Scottish Government consistent with this approach, some 75% of Scottish rail passenger journeys are already on electric trains. Regrettably, only 45% of rail freight movements in Scotland are electric, chiefly due to the lack of electrification to key freight terminals and ports at the English end of the freight journey.

Concerning investment in Hydrogen trains, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00852 on 1 July 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Zero Emission Train (ZET) project is currently on target to run during COP26 in November at Bo’ness. It is managed by world-leading hydrogen-technology company Arcola Energy and the £3.5 million project will fully test Hydrogen powered traction options, which will be required where electrification is not appropriate.

Rail Industry partners are working to test the integration of alternative traction power supply equipment within a live train environment through this Hydrogen Accelerator initiative overseen by St Andrews University. As a result, issues associated with creating, approving and then enabling a hydrogen-fuelled train will be addressed as well as growing the local supply chain for future decarbonisation fleet requirements in Scotland.

We remain on target to decarbonise rail passenger services in Scotland by 2035 as set out in the Rail Decarbonisation Action Plan published July 2020.

Good progress is already being made to decarbonise the East Kilbride and Barrhead routes, Borders line and Fife Circle (providing services to Leven) as a first phase of delivery. Development work is also progressing on the wider decarbonisation plan including decarbonisation/electrification infrastructure and electric, battery and hydrogen rolling stock.

Updates on progress will be published as the strategy develops, key elements of which will also form part of the Strategic Transport Projects Review 2, with phase 1 having been published in February 2021.

Regarding part (b) of the question, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00852 on 1 July 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Government’s position is that cruises may dock at Scottish ports when all of Scotland is in level 1. If the evidence supports the planned lifting of restrictions at the next review point, domestic cruising will be allowed from 19 July. Further information on this can be found in the Guidance: Coronavirus (COVID-19): travel and transport - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Scottish Government is satisfied that the industry protocols developed by the UK Chamber of Shipping represent current best practice. These have been fully considered by the Scottish Government and approved for use as part of our Guidance for domestic cruise operators which can be found here: Coronavirus (COVID-19): travel and transport - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Cruise must however be considered in the wider health context and due to the upward trajectory in Covid cases, concerns around the more transmissible Delta variant and the potential to transfer Covid (that has a relatively long asymptomatic incubation period) to multiple touchpoints across different locations, even with the use of near-person testing regimens, the Scottish Government has recommended that cruise start when all of Scotland reaches level 1. Once cruising can commence, these protocols will stand the industry in good stead, allowing for a quick and safe resumption of activity.

As with all decisions relating to the relaxation of restrictions, this has been given thorough consideration through the 4 Harms process which has included consideration of the economic harm. Since the beginning of the pandemic we have worked closely with the industry to identify the impact on the sector and mitigations that would be necessary to allow domestic cruise restart. We recognise that the tourism sector, including cruise, has strongly felt the impact of restrictions and our aim has always been to enable cruise restart as quickly and safely as possible.

The decision to enable cruise restart was based on the upward trajectory in Covid cases, concerns around the more transmissible Delta variant and the potential to transfer Covid (that has a relatively long asymptomatic incubation period) to multiple touchpoints across different locations, even with the use of near-person testing regimens.

By waiting until all of Scotland reaches level 1, risk of viral spread across the country will be lower. If the evidence supports the planned lifting of restrictions at the next review point, domestic cruising will be allowed from 19 July. By this time, more of the population will be fully vaccinated further reducing the risk of viral spread.

All of the evidence is published online and can be found here: COVID-19 in Scotland (data.gov.scot)

As set out in Scotland’s Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP - December, 2020) the Scottish Government is working with SDS, agencies, skills providers, industry and independent experts to design a Green Jobs Workforce Academy capable of supporting the retraining and upskilling interventions needed for the transition to net zero. As part of the 100 day manifesto commitment, phase 1 of the Green Jobs Workforce Academy will be launched by 26 August 2021.

A budget of circa £10 million was agreed to cover the necessary activities associated with the mobilisation of ScotRail Trains Ltd, in a manner that complies with the UK Government’s railway legislation. This is a significantly smaller sum than the costs to all parties which would be incurred through a procurement competition under the UK Government’s failed franchising model.

The Scottish Government, unlike the UK Government, included a requirement within the Scottish High Level Output Specification (HLOS) for Network Rail (NR) to take action on climate change during this Regulatory Control Period.

For the period 2019-2024, the Scottish Government is providing funding to support a 21% increase in NR spending on operation, maintenance and renewal activities on the Scottish rail network. This is in line with the Office of Rail and Road’s independent determination of costs necessary to deliver safety, performance and resilience requirements, including Climate Change action.

In March of this year, NR published two reports from independently commissioned experts following the derailment at Carmont. The work was a recommendation from the NR Interim Report on the Carmont derailment published in September 2020, to establish two task forces examining in detail NR’s GB wide management of extreme weather and earthworks.