As committed in the Programme for Government, we will publish an action plan in spring 2020 to decarbonise Scotland’s railway network by 2035. The primary focus will be the continuation of a rolling programme of efficient electrification, the procurement of battery trains and the development of hydrogen fuel cell propulsion trains. Further detail on how change may affect specific routes, will be set out in the action plan.

Although more seats have been provided in the last few years Abellio ScotRail has further plans to increase peak capacity on the Borders route. However, these plans cannot be implemented until Angel Trains and Wabtec deliver on their contracted programme for refurbished HSTs so that existing upgraded diesel trains used elsewhere on the Scottish network cannot be cascaded to meet the needs of busy Borders services.

The fleet of class 158 and class 170 diesel trains which currently operate on Borders services have completed a significant refurbishment programme which has seen Wi-Fi, wheelchair spaces, power sockets, accessible toilet plus new flooring, seating and lighting installed to deliver the modern facilities that passengers expect. It is apparent that a high quality refurbishment can deliver a passenger experience comparable to new rolling stock whilst offering value for money across the Franchise period.

To date, Scottish Government has invested £29.5m through Scottish Enterprise and appointed Fund Managers. In addition, we have sourced £15.4m from European sources via ERDF and European Investment Fund monies. These monies have leveraged private enterprise resources of £115.1m.

The original timeline for the Scottish Growth Scheme was for a 3 year period to June 2020.

To 30 September 2019, £160m has been invested in the Scottish Growth Scheme and this has supported 262 businesses.

There are no plans to publish the internal Scottish Growth Scheme monthly report.

Information on the income from non-domestic rates charged on sporting rights are not available by parliamentary region. The following table presents the estimated non-domestic rates income raised from sporting rights from 2017-18 until 2019-20, broken down by local authority.

The Scottish Government collects and publishes quarterly aggregate information on the number of appeals made, resolved and the resulting revisions in rateable value. We do not collect property-level information on appeals and therefore do not hold information on the number of appeals made and upheld against different property types, including sporting rights.

The valuation of non-domestic properties for rating purposes is carried out by independent Scottish Assessors. It is their responsibility to manage their own budget and the cost of entering properties, including sporting rights on the Valuation Roll is not held centrally.

The non-domestic rates system, including billing, collection, enforcement and determination of rates relief is undertaken by local authorities. Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including any administration costs, on the basis of local needs and priorities. Information on the costs of administering the implementation of non-domestic rates on sporting rights is not held centrally.

Information on the costs of administering appeals is also not held centrally. Rating appeals are part of an independent statutory legal process and are dealt with by Valuation Appeals Committees or the Lands Tribunal for Scotland and ultimately may be determined in the Lands Valuation Appeal Court.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W- 25908 on 11 November 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx ”

As committed in the Programme for Government, we will publish an action plan in spring 2020 to decarbonise Scotland’s railway network by 2035. The primary focus will be the continuation of a rolling programme of efficient electrification, the procurement of battery trains and the development of hydrogen fuel cell propulsion trains. Further detail on how change may affect specific routes, will be set out in the action plan.