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17 April 2008

(S3O-2916) First ScotRail Franchise

First ScotRail Franchise

1. Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab):
To ask the Scottish Executive why, in advance of a study by Audit Scotland to establish whether the First ScotRail franchise is giving value for money, it announced the extension of that franchise for a further period of three years without prior reference to the Parliament. (S3O-2916)

The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change (Stewart Stevenson): This was the best time to extend the franchise, allowing the Government to secure early service improvements and funding from the franchisee. The option to extend was part of the original franchise agreement, which was fully consulted on before it was let. The core franchise proposition has not changed as a result of our exercising the extension option.

Jackie Baillie: The minister will be aware of the anger and disappointment felt at the fact that he failed to consult stakeholders, failed to await the publication of the Audit Scotland report in the autumn and even failed to give Audit Scotland advance notice of what he planned to do. There is undoubtedly plenty of time for us to reflect on whether the franchise represents value for money to the public pursue. I hope that he will agree that the best time for deciding whether to renew the franchise is when we have secured such value for money.

I ask the minister to indicate whether he agrees with the following comment:

"Whatever else we might disagree on, we should surely agree that, when we spend public money, we must seek value for money. That means not tying our hands."—[Official Report, 5 March 2008; c 6581.]

He may be interested to learn that the comment was made by himself—yes, by Stewart Stevenson—in the chamber on 5 March.

Stewart Stevenson: I am pleased to advise the member that the agreement that we have reached gives us a further 18 months in which to decide whether to refranchise in 2011. That will allow us to take account of any conclusions that Audit Scotland reaches that are material to the performance of the franchisee. I continue to agree with myself—I am not having a bout of schizophrenia. We shall, of course, engage with stakeholders when deciding how to spend the extra £70 million that this excellent agreement will deliver for Scotland's railways.

Alex Johnstone (North East Scotland) (Con): I heard with interest the answer that the First Minister gave earlier today on this subject. I was delighted to hear that there will be additional developments in services between Edinburgh and Glasgow, south of Glasgow and north of Inverness. Will you give a commitment today to ensure that there is effort to improve services between Aberdeen and the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, so that your constituents and mine can enjoy some of the benefit of the agreement?

The Presiding Officer (Alex Fergusson): I will not answer the question, but the minister may.

Stewart Stevenson: Fortunately, we have already committed ourselves to improving services between Aberdeen and Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow and Aberdeen and Inverness, as well as between Inverness and the central belt. The announcement of improvements north of Inverness means that the whole of Scotland will benefit from the extra money that is being invested in railways, which will now be augmented by £70 million under the wonderful agreement that we have concluded.

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