Commenting after the debate highlighting the SNP’s botched handling of the Scotrail franchise, Liberal Democrat Transport spokesperson Alison McInnes MSP said: “The Transport Minister must concede that the cloak and dagger nature of Transport Scotland’s work on extending the Scotrail franchise is an entirely unacceptable way to conduct business. He needs to learn from this grave error in judgement.

“There is still £71.3 million to be spent from the extension of the franchise. Decisions about spending this money should be open and transparent. This is not an issue to be discussed at secret meetings behind closed doors.”Alison McInnes MSP, North East Scotland

Notes:

The text of Mrs McInnes’ amendment is below:

S3M-3075.2 Alison McInnes: ScotRail Franchise—As an amendment to motion (S3M-3075) in the name of Des McNulty, insert at end "requires the Scottish Government to conduct the next steps of the franchise extension process with the greatest possible transparency, and therefore calls on the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change to bring before Parliament the draft proposals on how the £73.1 million accrued through the franchise extension will be reinvested to allow close scrutiny of the plans before any further funds are committed."