Chamber and committees

Whilst the Scottish Government supports and encourages employers to pay the National Living Wage as well as employees’ rights, collective bargaining agreements are a matter for CalMac and Northern Ferries, its employees and the recognised trades unions.

Transport Scotland, through its Trunk Road Operating Companies and Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) Concessionaires, is responsible for the management and maintenance of the strategic trunk road network, including motorways. Repair of potholes on all other roads is the responsibility of the local authorities.

The following table shows the number of potholes reported or identified on the trunk road network since 2007, by financial year. Transport Scotland’s asset information system does not hold this data prior to 2007.

The Scottish Government fully funds the inspection and repair of all high risk category 1 defects (for example vandalism flooding, spills and potholes), on the trunk road network. The repair of all category 1 defects is funded from commercially sensitive monthly sums and cannot be provided. Transport Scotland’s asset information system does not hold the cost of repairing individual defect types such as potholes.

Trunk road investment is not allocated, recorded or reported on the basis of local authority area.

Since 2007, this Government has invested £4.35 billion in managing, maintaining, and safely operating the Scottish trunk road and motorway network. In 2021-22, we will invest £529 million, an increase of £59 million from 2020-21.

The budget for structural repairs and network strengthening of trunk roads and bridges, including the Forth Road Bridge, is being increased by £46.5 million in 2021-22 to £207 million. The budget for routine and winter maintenance of trunk roads is being increased by £12.5 million to £106.9 million.

We will continue to invest in our extensive trunk road maintenance and operations programmes, to improve Scotland’s road network through essential road maintenance schemes, our bridge strengthening programme, renewal of ancillary assets and increasing the resilience of the network to unplanned events such as landslides, flooding and extreme weather events.

The increases in Network Strengthening and Structural Repairs budgets will provide further investment to support our programmes of essential road carriageway maintenance and bridge strengthening and repairs contributing to our commitment to double investment in maintenance of existing assets over the next 5 years.

In addition, the overall condition of our network is being enhanced through the delivery of our capital investment programme.

Scottish Ministers fully recognise the importance of reliable ferry services to the economic, social and cultural development of island and remote mainland communities.

The recent breakdown of the MV Loch Seaforth, and the impacts felt across the network, caused unacceptable disruption for our island communities. During the disruption, Transport Scotland worked with CalMac and engaged with local stakeholders in order to ensure everything was done to return the vessel to service as soon as possible. CalMac redeployed vessels in order to minimise the impacts across the network and put in place measures to maximise capacity, such as deploying a second vessel on the route from Kintyre to Arran. It is imperative the causes of that breakdown are understood and lessons properly learned so that we avoid this situation arising again in future.

Ferry passengers, whether travelling for tourism or other purposes, can apply for compensation for disruption under Passenger Rights Legislation. No other compensation for travel disruption is available for the tourism industry or wider sectors of the economy. However, Scottish Ministers have provided £3.6 billion of support during Covid to tourism businesses and we are committed to investing at least £580 million in ports and vessels over the next five years.

The Scottish Government takes the welfare of all animals very seriously; and provision is made for the keepers of all animals to provide for their welfare under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.

The Scottish Government will monitor the progress of proposed EU legislation on animal production methods and will seek to remain aligned with any changes that are made.

There are 16 vessels over 25 years old. Information regarding the fleet can be accessed on the Calmac website by following the link https://www.calmac.co.uk/

Free school meals are a vital support to thousands of children and young people across the country - ensuring that children have access to a free, healthy and nutritious meal on every day they are in school and are ready to engage in learning.

The Scottish Government and our local authority partners have reached agreement to introduce universal free school lunches, during school term-time, for children in primaries 4 and 5 during the course of the current financial year. Universal provision for all children in primary 4 will begin in August 2021, whilst universal provision for all children in primary 5 will begin in January 2022.

We are providing local authorities with £28 million in this financial year to deliver this commitment, which will see around 90,000 additional children become newly entitled to receive free school lunches during the course of the forthcoming school year.

We will continue to work with our partners in local authorities over the coming months to ensure that our commitment to expanding the universal provision of free school lunches to include all primary school children, during term-time, is delivered by August 2022.

Regulations amending the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 were made today.

These Regulations amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 (“the principal regulations”) and will take effect on 19 July 2021.

The Regulations provide that all of Scotland is in Level 0 for the purpose of the principal regulations and accordingly the restrictions and requirements applicable at Level 0 and set out in schedule 1 to the principal regulations apply in all areas of Scotland.

The Regulations also make some adjustments to the restrictions and requirements which apply in Level 0.

The physical distancing requirements at Level 0 are reduced to 1 metre indoors and outdoors and the requirement for physical distancing between people in a gathering of up to 15 people outdoors is removed.

The Regulations also provide that in Level 0 children under the age of 12 years do not count for the purpose of calculating the number of households permitted for gatherings indoors.

Hospitality and casino opening hours in Level 0 are also adjusted to restrict opening to between 04:00 and 00:00.

The regulations have been published at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ssi/2021/263

The study, to be undertaken independently, has been scoped to identify where Highlands and Islands Airports Limited’s operations can create more economic activity for island communities. This requires engagement and input from essential external stakeholders which has, to date, not been forthcoming. The study will be further progressed when essential stakeholders agree to engage with the process and will be published upon its completion.

Ministers have not met with the union Prospect in relation to the ongoing industrial action by its members at HIAL. This is an operational matter and any discussions should be between Prospect and HIAL. There are no plans for Ministers to meet with Prospect.

Ministers have not discussed the outcomes of the Island Communities Impact Assessment on HIAL’s Air Traffic Management 2030 Strategy (ATMS) with HIAL. Implementation of the ATMS project, including consideration of the outcome of the Island Communities Impact Assessment, is an operational matter for HIAL.