 F energized, we will start with question number one from Linda Fabiani. Do you ask the Scottish Government when it will next meet ScotRail. Minister Humza Yousaf Minister of Transport, Scotland officials regularly meet representatives from ScotRail to discuss a wide range of issues relating to rail services. When he does next meet ScotRail, he discusses the east cobro-wide Glasgow train lane. Felly mae'r eu gwahau cymaint fel gwybod rhain yn dŵr, ac mae rhaid i ddim ni'n gweithio ffelly. Mae'n arduffydd mewn gwaith caf eu rhai o'r pysonnig o'r Lline yng Nghymru. Mae'n i ddweud eich rai arddangos beth, yn rhaid, o'r meeting o ScotRail, oedd diwrnoddol rydym ni'n dcrânобu iawn, oherwydd ein siarad yn gwneud at y pysyn o'r hynny oeducau o'r Lline yng Nghymru o'r Lline ynghymru o'r of carriages, overcrowding and being forced to leave the train before the required stops. I thank Linda Fabiani for her question. She has rightly raised the East Kilbride line on many occasions. The line that I am familiar with, as she knows, is one that I have travelled on frequently as my own service to get back home. What I would say to Linda Fabiani is a few things. One, the independent review that is taking place of performance. I will ensure that members across the chamber are given appropriately the findings of that, when that concludes soon. I will also say that I know that Linda Fabiani has met with ScotRail, and Alex Hines is very, very aware—the MD of ScotRail—of the issues around the East Kilbride line. I will ask about the passenger counts and where we are with that, and I will feed back to the member in writing, if she will not mind. I would say that there is conversations going on at the moment around the possible retention of class 156 that operate. If that deal can be struck, if we can hold on to them and retain them for longer, that will help some of the overcrowding issues. Of course, the longer-term plan is to get the 385s that Hitachi trains in. That allows the cascading of rolling stock across the network. I can give her an assurance that East Kilbride and members who have raised the five-circle lines are the two lines that we know that need urgent attention. She is right to continue to raise the issue with me, and I will make sure that she is continually kept up-to-date. Graham Simpson Thank you. Linda Fabiani is absolutely right to raise the issue. The recent figures out show that passenger numbers have fallen at East Kilbride and Hairmayers, but not all stations on the line. I think that that is because the service in East Kilbride is so poor that it stands to reason. Can I ask the minister who refers to an independent review and said rather vaguely that that will publish its results soon? What does he mean by soon? Can it be more specific? When are we going to get an actual answer on when that line is going to be fully dualled and electrified? There are a few parts to his question. On the service to the East Kilbride line, I look at the PPM figures and the moving annual average figures. They are generally above the national average, but that is not to dismiss at all the concerns that he and Linda Fabiani raised, particularly on the overcrowding side. I think that that is well recognised in the figures that we see. I understand why he raises those points. When it comes to when the independent review will be ready, with the greatest of respect, it is an independent review that is taking place. I would not want to be seen to be interfering and saying, accelerate that. I have to give Nick Donovan, who is a well-respected railway expert, the time to complete his review, but he does understand that there is some urgency around that. When those findings come to me, of course, it will be for ScotRail to decide how that is appropriately shared with members across the chamber. On electrification of the line, I have said to the member before that it is for local authorities, for regional transport partnerships to put together a business case, to put together to go through the STAG processes, to go through the GRIP process and therefore present that fully robust business case and then come to the Government. There are opportunities, of course, with control period 6 coming up soon for further rail enhancements, but it would be for local authorities, the RTP and others and the promoters to take the initiative. What I would say gently to the member just to conclude is that when it comes to funding new railway stations or new railway projects, we are not helped by the fact that the UK Government is slashing our railway budget for control period 6 by at least now £400 million. Stuart McMillan. Thank you, I can ask the minister to provide an update as to when the new rolling stock will be fully reinstated into the two Inverclyde lines, please. In terms of the Inverclyde routes, the member will be aware that we are investing heavily in those 385s. The 70 trains will be about 234 carriages, so they will be gradually introduced across the network. The new 385s, having seen them down in the plant at Newton-A-Cliff, are fantastic rolling stock, but in order to make allowances for that and allocations for that, drivers are having to go through training. When we have sufficient new classes of 385s, when they are introduced, we can phase out and replace the older class 314s that run on the Inverclyde route at the moment and also free up more class 280 trains. We are, as it has been documented publicly, having issues with Atachi delivering those trains on time to schedule that we have agreed with them and will continue to push them. I will get the most up-to-date progress report from my officials and I will feed that back to Stuart McMillan as best I can, but I promise him that we are working hard to get those trains here to get new rolling stock, which will make a real revolution across our rail network across Scotland. To ask the Scottish Government when the Edinburgh Tram inquiry will publish its report. The Edinburgh Tram inquiry was set up to operate independently of Scottish ministers who have no control over the inquiry's timetable. Ministers are, however, aware that progress is being made with taking evidence that the oral hearings and the latest public hearing date published by the inquiry is 22 February 2018. Details of the order of events, documents and transcripts of the oral hearings are published on the inquiry website. Following the conclusion of the hearings, Lord Hardy will review the written and oral evidence and other information that is obtained by the inquiry in order to produce a final report and to do recommendations. Before publication of the report, any witnesses who are subject to criticism in it must be notified of that criticism and given a reasonable opportunity to comment. Now, experience and other inquiries have shown that undertaking this necessary step can delay publication of the final report. I thank the minister for that answer. When the inquiry was established in 2014 by the then First Minister, Alex Salmond, the Scottish Government promised the public that it would be a swift inquiry, carried out quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. Years later, the costs are continuing to rock it and have passed the £8 million mark, with no indication of when that might conclude. While accepting that this is a complex subject, does the minister understand the level of frustration among Lothian residents at the cost to the taxpayer being incurred? Should ministers apologise for making promises over the costs and duration of the inquiry when they simply have been unable to keep them? I think that I understand the public's frustration. I remind him that we did not support the trams in the first place, and his party did vote for it. I also gently say to the member that his hypocrisy, frankly, knows no bounds. One week, he demands to drag Scottish Government ministers, in his words, to the chamber for so-called apparent government interference. Now he is demanding that I do not interfere enough and interfere in an independent inquiry for the trams. That is an unacceptable position. I would suggest to the Tory member that he gets a consistent argument for it. That is an independent inquiry that I will not interfere in and that I would have some real issues if the member was urging me to interfere in that. If he wants to write to me with some suggestions of how he thinks that I can speed up an independent inquiry, of course I will be all ears to that. Question 3, Andy Wightman. To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to regulate the commercial short-term letting of domestic flats. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Our vision for housing is that all people in Scotland should be able to live in high-quality, sustainable homes that they can afford and that meet their needs. Our commitment to deliver 50,000 affordable homes over the course of this Parliament supports that. Scottish ministers understand the pressure in some parts of the country for new controls over short-term letting of residential properties. We need to strike the right balance between enabling tourists to find places to stay, which is important for our local economies in supporting jobs, and the needs for residents to be able to afford to live and enjoy living in their neighbourhood. Different parts of Scotland face different pressures, and we want to support local authorities in taking the right action balancing the competing demands in their area. We will consider the recommendation and the report from the Scottish expert advisory panel on the collaborative economy, and we will consult on any proposed changes to regulation, ensuring that it meets the five better regulation principles. I look forward to meeting Mr Wightman later today to discuss the issue in more detail. I thank the minister for that response. As he says, the collaborative economy reports now published its time for action. Can the minister confirm that, as the first minister recognised at FMQs on 18 January, there is a distinction between firstly a person renting out a room or their property, while at all times it remains their main residence? That is the collaborative economy. Secondly, the commercial short-term letting economy, where domestic dwellings are being bought by investors and converted, does he agree that the Scottish expert advisory panel on the collaborative economy looked only at the first of those and that the second has had little attention to the Scottish Government, even though it is in the public interest to give councils the powers and flexibility that they need to regulate the growing sector? I cannot be more clear on that than I have been. The First Minister said the very same thing last week, is that we will look at what the panel has said about the situation of short-term letting. Mr Wightman is well aware that the situations in certain places are different from those here in Edinburgh. If he was to have a conversation with his colleague Mr Finlay, for example, regulation in the Highlands and Islands would have to be somewhat different from here in Edinburgh. Already we have a situation where legislation is in place to allow local authorities to take action around anti-social behaviour in those properties, which Mr Wightman has mentioned previously in the chamber, including the anti-social behaviour notices, houses used for holiday purposes Scotland, order 2011. That unfortunately has been little used by local authorities, and I would expect them to use the legislation as needs be. We will look at all of that carefully. We will publish our response to the expert panel in Spring, and, as I said, I am willing to have further conversations with Mr Wightman about this later on today. To ask the Scottish Government where it will provide an update on providing faster broadband connectivity in the Stirling constituency. In addition to the coverage provided by commercial suppliers, the digital Scotland superfast broadband programme has provided fibre broadband access to 12,998 premises in the Stirling constituency. Ffibre broadband access is now available to 91 per cent of premises in the wider Stirling council area, with the vast majority capable of accessing superfast speeds. The Scottish Government is committed to building on the success of the DSSB programme by extending superfast broadband access to 100 per cent of premises in Scotland. That is all premises, homes and businesses in Scotland by the end of 2021. We will invest £600 million through the first phase of reaching 100 per cent, our 100 programme to achieve this goal. Procurement is under way and deployment will begin during 2019. This is the biggest public investment ever made in a UK broadband project and underpins the first universal superfast programme in the UK. I thank the cabinet secretary for a helpful reply. Can he please let me know what percentage uplift of premises connected to fostered faster broadband has been in the Stirling area as a result of investment from digital Scotland superfast broadband, compared what it has been without that investment? In what might it be in opposition to make any specific commitments today regarding broadband speeds for rural communities in the Stirling area such as Kinlochars, Stronachlacker, Braggarturk and Strathfyllyn, can he give me an assurance that all those communities will be connected to fostered broadband at the earliest possible date? Yes, I can. As a result of the superfast broadband programme and commercial coverage, more than 91 per cent of all premises in the Stirling area can now access fibre broadband and more than 88 per cent at speeds of 24 megabits per second and above. To answer Mr Crawford's question and Mr Crawford's campaign tirelessly on this issue over the past years, it is estimated that just 59 per cent of premises would have had access to fibre broadband otherwise. In other words, the Scottish Government's DSSB programme has seen an increase of 32 per cent in Mr Crawford's constituency. That is nearly one-third, one-third more people in his constituency who now have access to superfast broadband as a direct result of the investment by this Government. Question 5 has been withdrawn. Question 6, Kezia Dugdale. To ask the Scottish Government, further to the First Minister's meeting with the family of Sean Woodburn, who was killed on New Year's Day 2017, what plans it has to enhance the rights of victims during court procedures. Cabinet Secretary, Michael Matheson. The First Minister and I met with Sean Woodburn's family on 10 January. We were struck by the dignity with which they have conducted themselves in such difficult circumstances. I understand that the family is with us in the chamber today, and I would like to take this opportunity to offer my condolences again for their tragic loss. This Government has already taken a number of steps to enhance the rights of victims. The Victims and Witnesses Scotland Act 2014 improved the support and information made available to victims. That includes providing victims and bereaved relatives with new rights to access information and reasons for decisions that were made about their case. We also created a duty on justice organisations to set clear standards of service so that victims know what to expect and who to contact if the service that they receive does not meet their expectations. In addition, we published a victims code for Scotland, which clearly and simply sets out the rights of victims in one place. It is important that we continue to listen to the experience of victims and their families and consider further improvements that can be made. Indeed, we are currently working with our justice partners and victims organisations to explore a single point of contact model for victim support. That will help to ensure that those who experience serious crimes receive a consistent and individually tailored level of support for as long as they feel is necessary. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Sean Schiller received a sentence of just four years. The family have shared their story with the record today and believe that it should have been longer. Of course they do, but they also accept that that is why an independent judge determines these matters, not the media, not victims' families or even politicians. However, what they cannot understand is why no one will explain why that decision was made, what the process was, what was considered and what was not. When I raised that with Lord Carlaway, he drew my attention to section 6 of the act that the cabinet secretary mentioned, an act that gives victims the right to request the final decision of a court in a trial and any reasons for it. I therefore ask the cabinet secretary, given the right that is delivered by his Government, why the sentencing report has not been shared with the family and what steps the Government will take to improve the transparency of court proceedings. Sentencing in any given case, including decisions relating to the publication of sentencing statements, is a matter for the court. A judge will often give reasons for imposing a particular sentence in court at the time of sentencing or where the disposal is under challenge in a subsequent report to the appeal court. The sentencing of convicted persons is usually announced orally in court and in certain cases a sentencing statement may also be published thereafter. The decision on whether or not to publish a sentencing statement is at the discretion of the independent judge in the performance of their judicial function and the Scottish Government cannot interfere with that. However, as a Government, we support transparency in sentencing so that everyone involved in a case can understand the reasons why a sentence has been given. As I mentioned previously, in the meeting with Mr Woodburn and his family on 10 January, the victims code provides relatives with the opportunity to request from the Scottish court and tribunal service the reason for sentencing decisions to be published and for that to be made available to the family. However, in the issues that the member has raised, I will ensure that those matters are highlighted to the Lord President to see whether there is any further progress that can be made in improving how the system is operating.