Parliamentary questions
John Finnie
1,255 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
30 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13792 by Humza Yousaf on 18 January 2018, whether it considers there is a difference between a guard and a ticket examiner and, if so, what the difference is, and how many ScotRail services ran without a (a) guard and (b) second member of staff in 2…
Answer · Humza Yousaf: I can confirm there is a difference between the roles and responsibilities of a Guard (Conductor) and a Ticket Examiner. Although both have several aspects of their roles which are identical, a Guard has the additional responsibility for opening and closing t…
29 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what contractual arrangements (a) it and (b) its bodies have with Carillion that relate to the Highlands and Islands region.
Answer · Keith Brown: a) The Scottish Government has no contracts with Carillion. b) Highlands and Islands Enterprise have two contracts with Carillion. A facilities management contract for An Lochran and a facilities management contract for the Centre for Health Science.
29 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the social and economic benefits of clearing and salting pavements and cycle ways during periods of adverse weather.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: The impacts of disruptive winter weather on transport cover a wide spectrum – from the direct economic costs of lost output if people cannot get to work and of freight vehicle delays, to the personal time lost from travel delays and journeys not made at all, …
25 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding ScotRail charging peak-time fares for tickets bought on board off-peak trains.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: The National Rail Conditions of Travel (NRCoT) set out the rights and responsibilities of train companies and passengers when travelling on the National Rail network. Key responsibilities of passengers include that they must purchase, where possible, a valid …
25 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of ScotRail restricting the times that off-peak tickets are sold at stations.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: The current restrictions on purchasing off-peak tickets are the same as they were in the previous ScotRail Franchise, prior to 1 April, 2015, and these restrictions are based on the departure times of services, rather than arrival times. For example, within S…
23 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13793 by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2018, how many services are represented in the statement that "0.78 percent of ScotRail services were subject to skip-stopping", broken down by station skipped.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: In 2017, the number of ScotRail services subject to skip-stopping was 5,968 trains, out of 765,458 services planned to run. The Scottish Government does not hold a breakdown of the number of times that individual stations were skipped. The member may be awar…
23 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13795 by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2018, how many seats 0.35% of capacity represents.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: The number of seats planned but not provided has been advised as 469,059 seats, against a total of 133,371,277 seats planned to be provided.
23 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13801 by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2018, by what date it will publish the review of its National Transport Strategy.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Our intention is for the National Transport Strategy Review to culminate in the production of a draft strategy in early 2019 for public consultation, with publication post-consultation in summer 2019.
23 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government further to the answers to questions S5W-13796 and S5W-13797 by Humza Yousaf on 18 January 2018, how many SQUIRE audits were carried out on ScotRail services in 2017; how many failures were recorded, broken down by type of failure, and what the cumulative financial penalty was.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Number of trains audited in 2017 Number of train toilets audited Number of fails recorded Penalties accrued 2404 3092 686 -£225870 NB: It is important to note that a significant number of fails were recorded for the maintenance record card being out…
19 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many rail fatalities (a) on the Highland Main Line between Perth and Inverness and (b) in Scotland involved incidents with freight trains, in each of the last 10 years.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Network Rail has advised that there have been no fatalities on the Highland Main Line between Perth and Inverness involving a freight train in the last 10 years. Their figures show that there have been five fatalities in Scotland in the last 10 years that inv…
19 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many tonne-kilometres of (a) heavy goods vehicle and (b) freight train movements there were (i) on the A9 between Perth and Inverness, (ii) on the Highland Main Line between Perth and Inverness and (iii) in Scotland in each of the last 10 years.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Tables 3.3, 7.12 and 7.13 in the publication Scottish Transport Statistics provide information about road freight statistics and rail freight statistics. The publication can be found here http://bit.ly/STS_alleditions Information below Scotland level is not h…
19 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many road fatalities (a) on the A9 between Perth and Inverness and (b) in Scotland involved incidents with heavy goods vehicles in each of the last 10 years.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: (a) Fatal casualties on the A9 between Perth and Inverness arising from accidents involving an HGV (approximately 50 metres north of the Inveralmond Roundabout to approximately 50 metres south of Raigmore Roundabout) Year Fatal casualties in accidents invo…
18 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13520 by Keith Brown on 16 January 2018, whether it is the cabinet secretary's position that he has no responsibility for the oversight of both bodies.
Answer · Keith Brown: No, I refer the member to the answer given previously.
16 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to the UNESCO biosphere reserves in Scotland.
Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: During the period 2014-2020, Scottish Natural Heritage has allocated approximately £267,000 plus around 270 days of staff time support to the two UNESCO biosphere reserves in Scotland. These are in Galloway and Southern Ayrshire and in Wester Ross. The Scott…
15 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Programme for Government 2017-18, what progress it has made in establishing an expert advisory group "to make recommendations on how Scotland can continue to lead by example on human rights, including economic, social, cultural and environmental rights".
Answer · Angela Constance: The First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership met for the first time on 17 January 2018. Further information can be found in the Scottish Government news release at: https://firstminister.gov.scot/ambition-on-human-rights/. The group is cha…
11 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what contingency arrangements are in place to recover broken-down freight locomotives.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: In the event of a breakdown, Network Rail’s priority is to take all necessary steps to minimise disruption to services. Network Rail has agreed contingency plans in place with each train operator and, in accordance with its licence conditions, it can commande…
11 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to put the trunk road operating contracts for the (a) north west and (b) south west out to tender in 2018, and whether the terms of the contract will differ from previous iterations.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: We recently completed an industry and stakeholder consultation exercise as part of our overall procurement strategy for the trunk road maintenance contracts. This is currently being considered in conjunction with a review of our operational requirements to in…
11 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made toward improved rail journey times of between 2 hours 45 minutes and 3 hours between Edinburgh and Inverness.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government’s Infrastructure Investment Plan, published in 2011, stated that the Highland Main Line Rail Improvement project will be completed in phases between 2014 and 2025. The long term aim of the project sought to achieve a journey time of 2…
11 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many ScotRail services that ordinarily would have had a refreshment trolley service operated without one in 2017.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Transport Scotland do not hold this information however this aspect is audited within the Service Quality Incentive Regime (SQUIRE) and any occasions when a trolley is missing during an audit a fail is recorded and a financial penalty is attributed.
11 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many ScotRail services operated without toilet facilities being available in 2017.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Transport Scotland do not hold this information however this aspect is audited within the Service Quality Incentive Regime (SQUIRE) and any occasions when a toilet is not available or not fully operational during an audit a fail is recorded and a financial pe…
11 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many ScotRail services operated with a reduced carriage capacity in 2017.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: Under the terms of the franchise, ScotRail reports the capacity it operates in terms of seats not provided, compared with the planned number of seats provided. In the year ended 6 December 2017, the extent of under provision of seat capacity was 0.35 percent.
11 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many ScotRail services were (a) cancelled and (b) delayed in 2017.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: In 2017, 0.97 percent of ScotRail services were cancelled in full, and a further 1.28 percent cancelled in part (including skip-stopping). 7.4 percent of trains were subject to delay (that is, more than five minutes late on arrival at their final destination)…
11 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many instances of stop skipping occurred on ScotRail services in 2017.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: In 2017, 0.78 percent of ScotRail services were subject to skip-stopping. Performance in the railway system in Great Britain is measured using the Public-Performance Measure (PPM), which counts all trains planned to run, which run and arrive within five minu…
11 Jan 2018 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many ScotRail services operated without a guard on board in 2017.
Answer · Humza Yousaf: From January 2017 until the end of Period 9 (9 December 2017) there was approximately 1.09% of all ScotRail services operated without having a Ticket Examiner on board for all or part of a journey.
10 Jan 2018 · SPCB Written Question
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it has carried out any analysis of the shift in general usage from landline to mobile telephones and the impact of this on MSPs’ ability to communicate with their constituents within current budget means.
Answer · Kezia Dugdale: The Reimbursement of Members’ Expenses Scheme enables Members to meet the costs of both landline and mobile phones through the Telecommunications and Office Cost Provisions. Members have a variety of arrangements in place for landline provision including dir…
21 Dec 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what (a) financial and (b) other support it provides for Sports Heritage Scotland's Memories Project.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: Sports Heritage Scotland received £47,000 from the Museums and Galleries Scotland for the current financial year. I work closely with Sports Heritage Scotland and spoke at the launch event on 31 March 2017, as did Maureen Watt, Minister for Mental Health. I …
18 Dec 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work last reviewed the risk register for (a) Highlands and Islands and (b) Scottish Enterprise, and what the findings were.
Answer · Keith Brown: Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are solely responsible for the management of their respective risk registers. Both operate an approved risk management policy and are responsible for assessing and evaluating both the likelihood and i…
18 Dec 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-12978 by Fergus Ewing on 11 December 2017, whether it is standard practice to meet with a developer that is considering whether to apply for planning permission to a local planning authority and, if so, for what reason, and how it will ensure that m…
Answer · Fergus Ewing: This Government is committed to creating the best possible business environment in a Scotland which is cleaner, greener and healthier. It is therefore important for government to engage with individuals, companies and organisations with an interest in economi…
18 Dec 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-12978 by Fergus Ewing on 11 December 2017, what contact it has had or plans with the (a) Ramsar Convention secretariat and (b) UK Government regarding the proposed Coul Links golf club.
Answer · Fergus Ewing: An enquiry from the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention regarding the planning application submitted by Coul Links Ltd to the Highland Council for a golf course at Coul Links has been forwarded to the Scottish Government by the UK Government. The United King…
12 Dec 2017 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to its letter to the member of 4 December 2017, when it expects Police Scotland to finish developing the "weeding and retention policy" for the Police Scotland Vulnerable Persons Database.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The development of the weeding and retention policy for the Vulnerable Persons Database is an operational matter for Police Scotland. However, the Scottish Government understands that Police Scotland hopes to have this finalised within the first quarter of 20…