To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to ScotRail ticket offices scoring one out of five in the most recent service quality inspection regime data. (S6O-04212)

Those scores are disappointing, and I expect to see facilities provided that meet the needs of passengers. However, those scores demonstrate that SQUIRE is one of the most rigorous regimes of its kind. Many of the target levels are set at 90 per cent or higher. It audits 362 stations and 250 trains in every four-week period. That rigorous approach to inspection by the Scottish Government helps ScotRail to achieve consistently higher passenger satisfaction scores when compared with other rail operators in Great Britain, and most recently, ScotRail scored 90 per cent for overall passenger satisfaction.

The failures that the member mentioned are linked to ticket offices when staff are not present to open the office when expected, and therefore, to provide access to facilities. ScotRail has advised us that the opening times for ticket offices will become more reliable once the revised opening times have been agreed and all necessary arrangements to implement the changes have been put in place.

I thank the cabinet secretary for that response. Transport Scotland stated that the low scores for ticket offices were due to the pending outcome of the station opening hours staff consultation, but the issue is long standing: ticket offices scored one out of five in almost every inspection since 2023. What action has the Scottish Government sought from ScotRail to resolve the issues? Can the ongoing consultation be considered a fair assessment of the service if it is not currently being delivered?

I am concerned that, when 78 per cent of tickets used to be bought at ticket offices and that figure has gone down to 14 per cent, there will be circumstances—whether for reasons of maintenance or other issues for which staff want to be elsewhere—in which an office is closed when it is meant to be open. That has not helped the scores. That should and could be resolved with more certainty and reliability about when ticket offices will be open.

Will the cabinet secretary set out how the pending outcome of the ongoing station opening hours consultation would have affected those scores, how the Government expects to see significantly improved scores and how all that will drive efficiency and improvements on our publicly owned railway?

We need efficiency and improvement on our railways. The management of that is the responsibility of ScotRail. However, as I have said in a previous answer, the new regime will ensure that staff are made available at stations. They might not be in ticket offices, but they will be at stations after the vast majority of changes have taken place. Indeed, stations where there are increases in scores are where there is accessibility to allow use of ticket barriers and so on.

Things move on, change and need to be improved. The SQUIRE inspectors will use the agreed times for inspection purposes, so we would expect ticket offices and facilities to be open and fully functional. As I explained in my previous answer, that is to provide certainty and reliability that is not there at the moment.