Chamber and committees

As outlined in our Programme for Government, we plan to double the Active Travel budget from £40 million to £80 million per annum from 2018-19. We will continue to build walking and cycling infrastructure in partnership with all local authorities and other partners through Sustrans. We will provide access to behaviour change programmes such as Smarter Choices, Smarter Places through Paths for All, Bikeability Scotland cycle training for school children and the suite of cycle friendly awards administered by Cycling Scotland.

In terms of tackling transport poverty, we will take steps to ensure walking and cycling are accessible regardless of income. Our focus will be to invest in areas of deprivation and encourage free bike hire, where available, to those most in need. We will create conditions whereby active travel is a desirable choice rather than the only available option.

In addition, we will work with local authorities and registered social landlords to create secure storage for bikes in areas with social housing and local authority housing. We will work with communities to make places more attractive and safe for walking and cycling.

We will continue to work across policy portfolios to ensure that people are never locked out of opportunities to access employment and services through transport poverty.

Ferry Fleet

Since 2015, improvements to the existing CalMac ferry fleet have been undertaken consisting of upgrades and refurbishments of a value of around £8m. In addition, three new vessels, with a total value of around £55m, have entered service: the MV Loch Seaforth in 2015, the MV Catriona in 2016 and the MV Carvoria in 2017. Furthermore, there are two major dual-fuel vessels currently under construction at Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd (FMEL) in Port Glasgow with a total contract value of £97m.

Harbours

Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) has responsibility on behalf of the Scottish Ministers for 26 of the ports that CalMac operate from. CMAL undertake on-going inspections and maintenance and repair works to the facilities at these locations which include linkspans, passenger access systems, piers, fenders, electric vehicle charging points and navigation aids. Expenditure by CMAL since 2015 has been around £13.9m.

CMAL have also completed several significant upgrade and redevelopment capital investment projects in this timeframe at ports including Brodick, Gourock, Kennacraig, Lochaline, Port Ellen and Wemyss Bay. CMAL has invested £37.7m on these and other projects, of which £23.7m was in 2016-17.

The Brodick redevelopment project has recently been completed with £30m of public investment from CMAL, Transport Scotland, North Ayrshire Council and Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.

In addition, CMAL have several capital projects on-going or in the pipeline including Colintraive and Rhubodach, Lochranza and Portavadie. They are also investing in network wide CCTV and Wind & Weather monitoring equipment.

Furthermore, there has been around £30m invested in the port infrastructure at the independent ports of Stornoway Port Authority and Ullapool Harbour Trust, the majority of which has been funded by grants from Transport Scotland. These projects were completed in 2015.

Vessels can operate in varying wind conditions. Wind speed is just one example of a range of safety considerations used in evaluating weather conditions before making a decision on whether it is safe to sail.

(a) The last quarter for which we hold the latest complete personal injury accident figures is 1 January 2017 to 31 March 2017.

In this period, there were 8 Fatal, 36 Serious and 178 Slight Injury accidents giving a total of 222 injury accidents across the trunk road network.

(b) Winter 2016-17 is being defined as 1 December 2016 to 31 March 2017.

In this period, there were 15 Fatal, 45 Serious and 260 Slight Injury accidents, giving a total of 320 injury accidents across the trunk road network.

Source: Transport Scotland Accident Manager System

The figures quoted may differ slightly from those published elsewhere because they were exported on a different date and the database may have changed between the dates extracted, e.g. due to late returns or corrections to earlier returns.

The percentage of services delayed and cancelled in each of the last two quarters is set out in the following table.

This would only be considered if the current commercial service ceased to operate and no alternative operator chose to operate the route on a commercial basis. The cost of a PSO on the Benbecula to Glasgow air route would be dependent on the specification of the service in terms of elements such as frequency, capacity and fare level and would be subject to an open tender exercise so as to ensure that best value was achieved.

Salt supplies came under extreme pressure during the severe winters of 2008-09 and 2010-11. Despite this, no roads authority ran out of salt.

Scotland's 32 local authorities are responsible for the maintenance and safe operation of the local road network, including Winter Service Operations and its own salt management. This includes all footways, footpaths and cycle tracks not in private ownership.

Salt stocks are fundamental to a successful winter on our roads and we currently have more salt in stock than was used for the whole of last winter. National salt figures are published on Transport Scotland’s website: https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/salt-group-situation-report/.

The Scottish Salt Group was established during the severe winter conditions early in 2010. The group includes representatives of Transport Scotland (TS), the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS), the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE). The Scottish Salt Group monitored the restocking process throughout the summer and met with suppliers to confirm there is adequate salt production to meet the demand. Road authorities recognise the need to have good salt stocks in advance of the start of winter to increase resilience and reduce reliance on in-season restocking.

BEAR Scotland manages and maintains the North-East trunk roads on behalf of Transport Scotland and this includes the A90 and A92 within the Dundee City Council boundary.

As outlined in the Oil and Gas Production Statistics 2016-17 publication, 82 per cent of all oil and gas production in the UK across this period was produced in Scotland (including Scottish adjacent waters). Looking at gas production only, Scottish production represented 63 per cent of total gas production in the UK continental shelf. Hence, while it is the case that the UK as a whole has a significant dependency on imported gas, Scotland clearly has an abundance of natural gas resources. In fact in 2015, Scottish gas production represented roughly six times that of final consumption from within Scotland. To access this figure as well as view the level of gas imports over the last 10 years, please refer to the SNAP Commodity Balances and Trade 2015 statistical publication (see link).

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Economy/oilgas

The draft Energy Strategy identifies that 75 per cent of total energy consumption in Scotland is currently supplied by oil and gas. Going forward, the Scottish Government recognises the important role that hydrocarbons will continue to play in our energy mix, especially as we transition to a low-carbon economy.

Salt stocks are fundamental to a successful winter on our roads and we currently have more salt in stock than was used for the whole of last winter. National salt figures are published on Transport Scotland’s website: https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/salt-group-situation-report/

The payment mechanism for the provision of winter service through our Operating Company contracts is a fixed ‘monthly sum’. This includes the procurement of salt, winter fleet and equipment for use on our trunk roads.

For this winter season, we have further invested in specialist plant. This includes an all-terrain 4x4 (Unimog) for use as a winter patrol vehicle on the M80, a Relief Vehicle for use during severe flooding events and a state of the art combi spreader for development of our liquid treatment trials.

The Scottish Salt Group monitored the restocking process throughout the summer and met with suppliers to confirm there is adequate salt production to meet the demand and that restocking targets for Scotland are being met.

Following the salt shortage of 2010-11, strategic salt was purchased (in addition to operational salt) and costs incurred to date are £11.9 million; inclusive of the purchase, haulage and storage. We have a strategic salt supply managed by the Scottish Salt Group of approx. 83,750 tonnes and requests from local roads authorities to use our strategic salt will be considered during emergencies.

We know heavy snowfall causes disruption and Transport Scotland continue to recognise the importance of a reliable and resilient transport network to people and the economy.

Transport Scotland is responsible for preventing snow and ice endangering the safe passage of pedestrians and vehicles on trunk roads in Scotland. Significant planning is undertaken in advance of winter to ensure that the trunk road operating companies are prepared and to share lessons learned from previous years. The operating companies each have a Winter Service Plan, which is available online at:

https://www.transport.gov.scot/our-approach/keep-scotland-moving/winter-service/#42965.

New contract specifications, specialist plant trials and innovations, greater use of technology and getting information to people ‘on the move’ are just a few of the ways we have strengthened the winter treatments, decision making and communication with road users on our trunk roads.

With a fully mobilised winter fleet of 208 spreaders with snow ploughing capability, our winter service capability has never been higher; and our pre-winter preparations, audits, scenario workshops and weekly winter calls will ensure that there is no room for complacency in our winter service despite the recent mild winters. Total salt in stock in Scotland on 7 November 2017 was 580,245 tonnes (including 83,750 tonnes of strategic salt). This represents 173% of total used in winter 2016-17.

Transport Scotland continues to recognise the importance of a reliable and resilient transport network to people and the economy. To sustain this improvement, an ambitious programme of actions is being taken forward for the coming winter. These actions include hiring an all-terrain 4x4 (Unimog) to trial as a patrol vehicle on the M80 to mitigate accessibility issues should another snow event occur on a strategic corridor.

Working closely with its Operating Companies’ supply chain partners, Transport Scotland has identified the opportunity to review operating practices and use of specialist ploughs during snow events; particularly at vulnerable locations such as gradients.

We work with our partners, including Police Scotland and the Met Office, in our state of the art control centre to keep Scotland moving across the winter months and we continue to use the best available technology to give road users the most up to date information about the roads when they require it.