Between June 2016 and June 2018 there were a total of sixteen meetings between Ministers and/or Transport Scotland officials and Pentland Ferries regarding the potential introduction of reduced ferry fares to Orkney. Ministers participated in four of these meetings, with support from officials.

In addition, there have been a number of related telephone discussions which took place over the same period between Pentland Ferries and Transport Scotland officials.

Pentland Ferries are a wholly private, commercial unlimited company, and as such it is their decision to take on what data is made publically available. However, I am aware that Transport Scotland officials have previously requested such information from Pentland Ferries without success.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with Dumfires and Galloway Health & Social Care Partnership (DGHSCP) as part of their active engagement with the Scottish Government's Improving GP Sustainability Working Group. As part of this work officials, including professional advisers undertook a series of GP practice visits in the Dumfries and Galloway area in February 2019 to offer further support.

They are currently exploring opportunities to help improve recruitment and retention through working with the Scottish Government funded Scottish Rural Medical Collaborative (SRMC). They are also working on improving GP wellbeing due to the tragic incident of a GP who took their own life in Lockerbie last year.

Our strategy to recruit and retain GPs underpins our commitment to recruit 800 additional practicing GPs by 2027, and is backed but our commitment to invest an additional £250 million in direct support of general practice by the end of this parliament.

Consultants acting on behalf of Transport Scotland are currently conducting an extensive, network-wide evaluation of RET, which will focus on the 2015 roll out routes, and feature secondary data analysis for the full network. The evaluation is due to conclude around the end of 2019.

This study will determine the medium to long-term effects of RET across the network as a whole and help to inform future policy relating to RET and ensure that decisions are taken in full cognisance of all relevant issues and challenges.

The Scottish Government's national cancer strategy ‘Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action’ was launched in March 2016 alongside a commitment to spend £100 million over 5 years to improve the prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment and aftercare of those affected by all forms of cancer across the whole of Scotland, including Dumfries and Galloway.

We do not intend to publish the Parking Standards document until the Transport (Scotland) Bill has been passed by the Scottish Parliament and the relevant parking provisions have been commenced. This will ensure that any changes to the parking provisions at Stages 2 and 3 can be taken into account in the standards, ensuring that they are fully aligned with the legislation and that the powers conferred by the Bill to publish the standards are fully in force.

It is also our intention to undertake a public consultation on the draft parking standards after the Bill has passed. In the meantime, we continue to engage with stakeholders through our Parking Standards Working Group on the development of the document.

ScotRail’s proposed Remedial Plan in relation to the passenger satisfaction KPI is scheduled to be received on 3 May 2019. This will be subject to scrutiny, evaluation and assessment and proper legal process in order to produce a satisfactory and contractually binding Remedial Agreement. This process is likely to take some weeks. The Remedial Agreement will then be published.

Following the purchase of the two freight vessels, employment terms and conditions of staff employed on the MV Hildasay and MV Helliar will be given full consideration by Serco NorthLink Ferries, reflecting the principles set out under the Scottish Government’s Fair Work Framework.

Crew on board the freight vessels will continue to benefit from the principles set out in the Fair Work Framework such as; access to NorthLink’s extensive training programme, genuine workforce engagement and payment of the Living Wage.

The number of doctors in training in Dumfries and Galloway has remained at 94 each year since 2015, rising to 95 in 2018-19. The 95 covers all Foundation, Core and Specialty trainees including General Practice.

There are 1700 Foundation Year (FY) doctors, split equally between FY1 and FY2.

In Scotland, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) has operational responsibility for the recruitment and monitoring of trainee doctors in GMC-approved training programmes, which it organises in collaboration with NHSScotland Boards.

On an agreed basis posts are distributed to the 4 NES regions as follows: West (50%), South-East (25%), East (10%) and North (15%). The posts are proportionately allocated across the constituent NHS Boards within each of these regions: