Forth Road Bridge Bill evidence session

Transport Scotland officials gave evidence on the Forth Road Bridge Bill to the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee on 16 January 2013.

David Thomson; Raymond Convill and Graham Porteous from Transport Scotland and Susan Conroy from the Scottish government gave evidence.

Transport Scotland states the principal objective of the Forth Road Bridge Bill is to pave the way for the most cost-effective and co-ordinated approach to the management and maintenance of the new Forth Crossing and the Forth Road Bridge (FRB).

Transport Scotland's Graham Porteous told MSPs the government is of the view that contracting a single bridge operating company to carry out the management and maintenance for both the new Forth Crossing and FRB will deliver the greatest cost and operational efficiencies.

Before the government can procure a bridge operating company for these functions, the FRB must first be transferred from the hands of the current operators, the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA), to the government.

Therefore, the road over the FRB will be trunked, FETA will be dissolved and its property, rights and liabilities transferred to the Scottish government.

The bill will transfer FETA employees to the bridge operating company and provides that Transfer of Undertakings (Protections of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) will apply.