Mike Rumbles

28 Nov 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when the earliest date is that ScotRail could be taken into public ownership.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: We expect the current ScotRail franchise to continue to its planned expiry date of 2025. However, either the Scottish Government or ScotRail could take steps to invoke the break-point in the current contract in March 2020, which would end the franchise in Apr…

28 Nov 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has carried out or plans of what the impact would be on (a) fares, (b) punctuality, (c) passengers and (d) public funds of ScotRail being taken into public ownership, and whether it will publish the findings.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The 2016 SNP manifesto commitment to enable public sector operators to bid for future rail contracts was re-affirmed in the recent Programme for Government which stated that a suitable body to make a bid would be identified in 2017-18. In line with the exist…

28 Nov 2017 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact has been on NHS Grampian's patient service record of the figures from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, which suggest that the board's NRAC funding targets have not been met since 2009, leading to a £165.6 million discrepancy.

21 Nov 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its commitment to deliver 30mbps superfast broadband to every household by 2021, whether it will publish a plan outlining when broadband upgrades will be delivered for each area/house and, if so, by what date. 

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Procurement for the Reaching 100% (R100) programme will be launched shortly and is expected to last around 12 months. Once this procurement is complete and contracts have been signed, we will confirm plans for the initial phase of deployment.

21 Nov 2017 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the difference has been since 2007 between NHS Grampian's actual funding and the amount it would have been allocated under the NRAC formula.

7 Nov 2017 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Parliament passing the Scottish Liberal Democrats' amendment in October following the debate on active travel, what action it is taking to ensure that every child in the country has access to cycling proficiency training.

2 Nov 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to reducing the risk of scalding by including reasonable measures for landlords in the private residential tenancy model agreement.

Answer · Kevin Stewart: The model agreement for the new private residential tenancy includes a mandatory clause on a private landlord’s duty to ensure that private rented homes comply with the statutory repairing standard. The repairing standard does not require measures to reduce t…

31 Oct 2017 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported funding problems facing NHS Grampian, what its position is on whether providing the lowest funding share of the national average, per head of population, meets its priorities for health care in the north east.

24 Oct 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has commissioned or analysed on the feasibility and costs of constructing road tunnels between islands.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government has not commissioned any studies related to determining the feasibility and costs of constructing road tunnels between islands. However, it has jointly funded studies by Shetland and Orkney Islands Councils and by Highlands and Islands…

5 Oct 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that NHS Grampian and NHS Highland account for 75% of all locum spending, what assessment it has carried out of the extra costs involved in the boards hiring locums; what action it is taking to support them to reduce the number hired, and what impact that the use of …

Answer · Shona Robison: The 75% figure reported in the media relates only to NHS Boards in the north of Scotland. Overall, this is 35% of the total Scottish spend. Scottish Government and NHS Boards have access to information from National Procurement and national information syste…

2 Oct 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to have to extend the suicide consultation events, which are planned for Glasgow, Dumfries and Inverurie, to cover Tayside.

Answer · Maureen Watt: With our partner agencies we are currently exploring potential options for adding an event in Tayside to this series of pre-engagement events. The Scottish Government website has details of these events and will be updated with any additional event in due cou…

26 Sep 2017 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the number of planned operations that have been cancelled in NHS Grampian.

21 Sep 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-11317 by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2017, whether (a) it expects to receive a report on the engine fire before the start of the refurbishment work on the fleet in preparation for its service with ScotRail and (b) the lease agreement with Angel Tra…

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The HST power cars destined for Abellio ScotRail are programmed to go through overhaul before being leased to Abellio Scotrail improving reliability. The lessons learned from the Great Western Railway incident on 14 September 2017 will be taken onboard by the…

14 Sep 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is the reports that a 40-year-old high speed train (HST), which was scheduled to be transferred to the ScotRail fleet, caught fire on 14 September 2017; whether it has asked for a report on the incident, and what the implications of this are for the HST units that are d…

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government has been notified of the incident that took place on the Great Western Railway (GWR) train at Exeter. We have been informed that the engine is being removed from the power car by GWR and will be sent back to the manufacturer for a deta…

13 Sep 2017 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the merger between Police Scotland and the British Transport Police.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Railway Policing (Scotland) Bill passed Stage 3 on 27 June and received Royal Assent on 1 August, becoming the Railway Policing (Scotland) Act 2017. This was a key step in the process of delivering integration and realising its benefits. Since then, signi…

12 Sep 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-10759 by Humza Yousaf on 6 September 2017, which cycling organisations it has met to discuss the issue of cycle provision on high-speed trains, and on what dates.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The ScotRail chaired Cycle Forum meets three times a year with the frequency approved by the members. This forum is attended by a variety of stakeholders including Transport Scotland, Cycling Scotland, SUSTRANs, CTC (Cyclists’ Touring Club), SPOKES and RTPs. …

12 Sep 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-10759 by Humza Yousaf on 6 September 2017, whether it expects to reach agreement on increasing cycle provision before the start of the overhaul and refurbishment of the high-speed trains and, if so, whether this will also include provision on servic…

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Transport Scotland has recently reached an agreement with ScotRail to increase the number of spaces available at intermediate stations from 2 to 4 and with 6 spaces (3 per power car) available for end to end journeys on the HSTs planned to be introduced into …

6 Sep 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many companies that employ people in Scotland are headquartered in the rest of the EU.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse: Statistics on the number of businesses, operating in Scotland, by country of ownership are produced by the Scottish Government within the Businesses in Scotland 2016 publication, available at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/Corporate …

5 Sep 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-10151 by Derek Mackay on 4 August 2017, whether it will answer the question that was asked regarding what information it has on how many businesses in the North East Scotland parliamentary region have closed or downsized due to an increase in busine…

Answer · Derek Mackay: As is commonly acknowledged, decisions by businesses in respect of their financial viability are subject to a wide range of cost pressures and cannot be measured against any single factor.

30 Aug 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-01123 by Humza Yousaf on 21 July 2016, whether it will provide the data for 2016.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The following table shows the number of fatal and serious accidents on each road in the Scottish trunk road and motorway network in 2016. Road FATAL SERIOUS A1 3 4 A6091 0 1 A68 4 8 A7 0 2 A701 2 2 A702 3 4 A720 1 5 A725 0 4 A726 …

15 Aug 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-08324 by Humza Yousaf on 19 April 2017, whether it has had any further discussions with Abellio ScotRail regarding the overhaul of HST trains in light of the fire on board in March 2017.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Transport Scotland officials meet regularly with Abellio ScotRail to discuss progress on all rolling stock commitments contained within the Franchise Agreement.

15 Aug 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-08324 by Humza Yousaf on 19 April 2017, when it expects the overhaul work on HST units for Abellio ScotRail to commence.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The programme of overhaul and refurbishment for the Abellio ScotRail high speed trains (HST) will commence later this year.

14 Aug 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-08730 by Humza Yousaf on 26 April 2017, what cycle capacity will be specified for the high-speed trains entering service with ScotRail in 2018.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Discussions to increase overall cycle capacity from 10 are nearing conclusion. This represents an increase of 500% more bookable space between Glasgow/Edinburgh and Inverness. We will continue to work closely with ScotRail, and cycling organisations to explor…

10 Aug 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much ScotRail has paid in compensation to passengers in each month since April 2015, and what estimate it has made of how this compares with how much would have been paid if every passenger who was eligible for compensation applied.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: ScotRail has paid a total of £832,271 in compensation to passengers since April 2015 (full details shown in the following table). The Scottish Government does not hold information about how much would have been paid if every passenger who was eligible for com…

26 Jul 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it position on making it compulsory for all new builds to have access to an internet connection.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Although responsibility for the delivery of telecommunications networks is currently a reserved matter, the Scottish Government has taken steps to assist with rollout of broadband during housing construction. From 1 January 2017, amendments to the Building …

26 Jul 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of concerns regarding more extreme weather conditions, what most recent assessment it has carried out of the country's flood defences.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: SEPA undertook a National Flood Risk Assessment (NFRA) in 2011 and the resulting Flood Risk Management Strategies were published in December 2015. This gave us for the first time a national picture of the causes and consequences of flooding across Scotland. T…

19 Jul 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to (a) promote and (b) improve the sustainability of (i) agricultural and (ii) wild land.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: (i) Agricultural land The Scottish Government continues to promote and improve the sustainability of agricultural land through the provision of Direct Payments and the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Since…

19 Jul 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the figures in its news release of 18 May 2017, Organic Farming in Scotland, 2016 Statistics, which showed that there has been a decline in organic farming in each of the last eight years, what action it is taking to (a) promote and (b) increase the percentage of agricultura…

Answer · Fergus Ewing: We continue to actively promote organic production in Scotland through organic farming conversion and maintenance payments under Scotland’s Rural Development Programme. We are also working closely with key stakeholders to promote and deliver Scotland’s organi…

3 Jul 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many farm businesses in (a) Shetland, (b) Orkney, (c) the Highlands, (d) Aberdeenshire and (e) each parliamentary region are still waiting to receive 2016-17 CAP basic payments.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The number of farm businesses still waiting to receive 2016-2017 CAP basic payments are: a) Shetland = 82 b) Orkney = 27 c) Highlands = 906 d) Aberdeenshire = 194  To put this in context: Highlands Aberdeenshire Shetland Islands Orkney Islands T…

3 Jul 2017 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it plans to maintain the age requirement for qualifying for concessionary travel.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: In the coming months the Scottish Government will undertake a formal public consultation on ways in which to ensure the longer term sustainability of the National Concessionary Travel Scheme.