Nicola Sturgeon becoming "personally involved" in a dispute about ferry workers' jobs halted a planned strike, a union leader has said.

Members of the RMT within Caledonian MacBrayne and Argyll Ferries were preparing to hold a 24-hour strike on Friday.
The union called off the action late on Wednesday.
Gordon Martin, of the RMT, said the government had given assurances that workers' demands would be looked at.
CalMac has welcomed the suspension of the strike and said it was "working flat out" to normalise its timetables for Friday. It had been preparing to run nine of its 27 routes.
The company has been contacting all passengers transferred to a different sailing to move them back to their original booking.
The dispute was triggered by the tendering of the contract for CalMac's Clyde and Hebrides ferry routes.
The Scottish government has agreed to delay the tendering process - but not the start date of the new contract - to allow further negotiation on the key issues of jobs, staffing, conditions and pensions.
Mr Martin, the union's regional organiser, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that the dispute should have been resolved much earlier.
He said: "The first minister has personally got involved and we have received assurances that the reasonable demands that we are looking for to protect our members - job security, pensions, terms and conditions - will be favourably looked at.
"The invitation to tender will now not be published tomorrow and will be delayed to the end of July and that gives everybody a bit of breathing space to reach a reasonable resolution to this ongoing issue."
Transport and Islands Minister Derek MacKay told Good Morning Scotland the involvement of the first minister was not a sign that the situation had been handled badly by the government, but "surely a good thing".
He said the government was looking at "the art of the possible and being reasonable" in satisfying the demands of the unions.
Mr Mackay said: "You can work around how you come up with an agreement process to reach a conclusion on changes to terms and conditions for example.
"So you can set up a process that doesn't involve a veto as such, but you can better involve trade unions in terms and conditions and those are the kind of issues that we'll work through, that we have been working on, and we'll continue to work through."
CalMac's operations director Drew Collier said further talks will be needed to find a permanent solution to the dispute.
He added: "In the meantime, we are pulling out all the stops to try to get back to our published timetables as quickly as possible.
"We would like to thank all our customers for their patience during this period of uncertainty and hope they can understand the difficult logistical task this last minute call off is presenting us with."
Serco, a company competing against CalMac for the new contract, said it was continuing to work on its bid.
Bid director Jonathan Riley said: "We received the draft invitation to tender for the Clyde and Hebrides Islands Ferries from the Scottish government in June and we have started work to develop our outline bid, which we look forward to submitting in due course."
Like CalMac, Argyll Ferries is owned by the state-owned David MacBrayne Group.
CalMac's contract to run Clyde and Hebrides ferry services comes to an end next year.
The Scottish government put the contract out to tender, in line with European rules.
Private company Serco - which already runs the Northern Ferries routes to Orkney and Shetland - is competing against CalMac for the contract.
Unions are concerned that, regardless of who wins, the new contract will see changes in employees' current terms and conditions, with a reduction in staff numbers and pensions also among the key areas of concern.
The RMT has asked that the government guarantees in the new contract that compulsory redundancies do not happen and existing terms and conditions are continued.


Former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan has been questioned by police for a second time about phone-hacking allegations.

The journalist confirmed in a tweet that he had attended a police interview and added: "No, I wasn't arrested. Sorry to disappoint everyone."
He was first questioned in 2013.
The Metropolitan Police said a 50-year-old man was interviewed under caution in connection with suspected conspiracy to intercept telephone voicemails.
Scotland Yard, which did not name Mr Morgan, said the man was interviewed by appointment and had not been arrested.
Mr Morgan was interviewed by officers from Operation Golding, the investigation into allegations of phone message interception at Mirror Group Newspapers, which is a strand of the wider Operation Weeting.
In a statement released to the Guardian newspaper, former CNN host Mr Morgan said: "Some time ago I was asked to attend an interview with officers from Operation Golding when I was next in the UK.
"This was further to a previous voluntary interview I provided in December 2013.
"I attended that interview today. As this is an ongoing investigation, I am unable to comment further until its conclusion."
Mr Morgan was editor of the Daily Mirror from 1995 until 2004, when he was sacked after the newspaper admitted that photographs it had published purportedly showing British soldiers abusing an Iraqi were fake.
He joined the Mirror from the News of the World, where he had been appointed editor in 1994 at the age of 28.
In recent years he has been a television talk show host in both the UK and the US.
He was a host on US cable network CNN between 2011 and 2014 and is also a former Britain's Got Talent judge.


A cash boost of almost £100m has paved the way for the redevelopment of Coventry city centre.

The sum - £98.8m in total - is the biggest slice of devolution funding yet approved by West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
The move, Coventry City Council said, effectively gave the go-ahead for a major overhaul under a planned £360m scheme.
Dubbed City Centre South, the project includes new homes and shops.
See more stories from Coventry and Warwickshire here
An "anchor store" and cinema are also planned for a complex set to transform the area around Bull Yard, Shelton Square and Market Way.
The concept was first discussed in 2011 and branding it "ambitious and exciting", council leader George Duggins said Coventry residents had "waited too long for improvements to the city centre".
He said: "It's no less than Coventry people deserve and a wonderful early Christmas present for the city."
WMCA chair Cllr Bob Sleigh said the funding was a "great example of how our devolution deal is beginning to have a real impact".
The City Centre South site, bordered by Upper Precinct, Greyfriars Road and Warwick Road, connects to Bull Yard, where it picks up the new boulevard connection to the railway station.
A developer is yet to be selected.


Blackburn Rovers manager Steve Kean says that he is delighted with the additions that he has made to his squad over the summer.

Rovers have signed eight players, including deadline day trio Yakubu, Scott Dann and Jordan Slew, and let 12 leave Ewood Park.
Kean told BBC Radio Lancashire: "People thought we were going to lose players.  We've managed to keep the majority.
"We've managed to bring in fantastic quality right on the last day."
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The signing of centre-back Dann could potentially become Blackburn's record transfer based on appearances and various incentives.
Kean said: "I've worked with him before. He's a fantastic leader but more importantly he's a top player."
Nigeria striker Yakubu agreed a three-year deal with Rovers after being out of favour for almost a year at Everton.
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"When we found out his was available we moved swiftly," Kean said. "To get somebody with a track record of scoring goals at this level is great.
"Everybody knows that if you can get him in the box and get him the service then he scores, so I think it's a brilliant signing."
The capture of 18-year-old striker Jordan Slew from Sheffield United for around £1m will see him join the club's development squad.


Japan's economy shrank 1.8% in the April-to-June period, worse than forecast and raising more questions about the government's economic policy.

The official data confirmed that the world's third largest economy suffered its sharpest quarterly contraction since the 2011 earthquake disaster.
On an annualised basis it would mean gross domestic product (GDP) fell 7.1%.
The fall was blamed in part on a consumer sales tax introduced in April, with another rise planned for 2015.
The release of Monday's revised official data follows publication of initial GDP estimates that put the second quarter contraction at 1.7%, with the annualised rate at 6.8%.
In the first quarter of 2014, the economy grew by 1.5%.
The single biggest factor behind the contraction in the second quarter is thought to be a rise in the nation's sales tax in April, to 8% from 5%.
There are now calls for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to delay a further rise planned for next year, while the central bank has faced fresh demands to expand its stimulus programme.
Private consumption makes up some 60% of Japan's economic activity.
Retail spending figures have showed that the country's consumers boosted spending the first quarter in an attempt to beat the sales tax hike in April.
And that activity is what economists say negatively impacted growth in the second quarter.
A raft of official data released at the end of last month by Japan's government showed that households had spent less and that factory output stayed flat in July.
Retail sales in July showed some small hope, rising by 0.5% from a year earlier, after a fall of 0.6% in June.
But economists say the current economic landscape should encourage the government to introduce even more reforms.
At the beginning of this month, Mr Abe announced a government re-shuffle, which many have said signals his determination to get the economy back on track by the end of the year.
Mr Abe is expected to make a decision in December about a second hike to the sales tax, which would see it move to 10% in October next year.
Japan's economy minister Akira Amari said on Friday that the nation was ready to introduce a stimulus package that would buffer the impact of another sales tax hike if it was introduced.
He said the prime minister's position was "utterly neutral" on a further sales tax rise.
"[Mr Abe] said no countries have doubled the sales tax rate over a year and a half," said Mr Amari.
"I expect that he will make a considerably cautious decision."


Scotland assistant coach Mark McGhee expects Kieran Tierney to be "A-okay" to face England in Saturday's World Cup qualifier.

The defender suffered a mouth injury in Celtic's Scottish Cup final win over Aberdeen and Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers said Tierney may need surgery.
Tierney, 19, will wear a gum shield against England at Hampden Park.
"We want as many of the boys available as possible," said McGhee at a Scottish FA community football event.
"It's good he will be able to play, especially after his performance moving from left-back to right-back against Slovenia.
"I was doing a little bit for the radio at the cup final for the BBC and one of the things I said was that he had to be injured when he stayed down that long.
"He takes his lead from [Celtic captain Scott Brown]. He comes down to the training ground in all weathers, and you can have some cold days at Mar Hall, and he's always wearing short-sleeved T-shirts. If it's good enough for Broony, it's good enough for Kieran. He is a hardy boy.
"He is looking absolutely A-okay, which is great news for us. He is a boy who has broken into the team and could go on and have a lot of caps."
Left-sided Tierney won his third cap wearing the number two jersey against Slovenia, with Hull City full-back Andrew Robertson playing on the left.
That 1-0 win moved Scotland to within a point of third-placed Slovenia and Gordon Strachan's side are two points behind Slovakia. Leaders England are six points clear of the Scots.
Tierney was one of six Celtic players that started at Hampden in March and the club have since completed a treble without losing a domestic match this season.
"They brought a confidence and an understanding between each other which added something to the team," said McGhee of the Celtic players.
"I scored the [winning] goal [for Aberdeen against Celtic] in the [1984 Scottish Cup] final and a week later I scored against England, so hopefully that's an omen. I definitely went into that match confident and I'm sure they will too.
"Last time out we saw their energy and their enthusiasm and the confidence obviously, but there was another advantage too, in that you feel as if the players are connected. They have an understanding of each other's game.
"That's an attribute that is hard to bring to a team when you have a week to work with them."
Strachan's initial squad of 29 players was trimmed with forwards Steven Fletcher and Jamie Murphy, midfielders John McGinn and Kenny McLean, and goalkeeper Jack Hamilton dropping out.
However, Hamilton has been recalled after Allan McGregor pulled out injured.
"We said that we could make it 23 but Gordon had a discussion with a couple of players and they wanted to be part of the squad regardless of whether they got on the bench," McGhee added.
"That's great to have that willingness to meet up with the squad when they could have been away to the exotic places they go to on holiday these days, which we never went to. I think I went to Millport after the game in '84 but they are all off to Dubai and the likes now."


World silver medallist Robert Blair is to take up a coaching position with Badminton Scotland after announcing his international retirement.

The 34-year-old was a World Championships runner-up with England's Anthony Clark in the 2006 men's doubles.
The same partnership collected European bronze in the same year.
Blair teamed up with fellow Scot Imogen Bankier to earn another bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
He and Bankier completed a hat-trick of Scottish National titles this year.
"I have been working with the young Scotland players for a while but now it is on a formal basis," said Blair.
"I suppose you can call me the apprentice coach but it's just nice to be giving something back to the sport."


The leaders of the Easter Rising looked beyond Ireland's shores for help with their fight for independence.

They found firm support across the Atlantic, among Irish Americans.
They sought financial aid - but more than that, the rebels wanted material help in the insurrection.
In the years surrounding the Easter Rebellion, the leaders of sympathisers in America sought German backing for Irish freedom.
A promise of German arms helped fuel plans for an Easter Rising.
After the outbreak of World War 1, a man named John Devoy - originally from County Kildare - was found guilty of treason and exiled to Cuba before he moved to America.
Once there, he hatched a plan. Devoy viewed England's war with Germany as a golden opportunity for Ireland, and began to seek assistance from the Germans.
He and other leaders of Clan na Gael (a secret society of Irish fenians founded in Philadelphia in 1881) met with the German ambassador to the US in August 1914, asking not for money, but for weapons.
Devoy and Roger Casement, a former British diplomat who later became involved in Irish republicanism, met with diplomats from Germany and agreed that if the Germans helped the Rising by supplying guns and military expertise, in return independent Ireland would remain neutral in the war.
The German ship carrying its lethal cargo was scuttled off the coast of Ireland, and its shipment of guns was lost.
No arms came to Ireland from America, despite a request to Devoy. American and British secret services were monitoring Irish-American movements, and Devoy believed that any shipment would fail to get past American ports.
But Irish-America's contribution to the Rising was more than simply financial. Many of the leaders of the rebellion had travelled to or lived in the United States, and some were American citizens.
Both Thomas Clarke and James Connolly had lived for a time in America, while several others, including Joseph Plunkett and Roger Casement, had toured the United States.
Eamon de Valera held dual British-America citizenship, something which played an important role in saving him from execution.
Interest in Ireland's fate remained high across the Atlantic.  An account of the Rising, written by a member of Cumann na mBan (an Irish republican women's paramilitary organisation formed in Dublin on 2 April 1914) appeared in the New York Times.


Micro-blogging service Twitter has declared its support for an initiative that lets people browse the web without being monitored.

The "Do Not Track" initiative stops firms tracking people as they visit several different websites.
The monitoring is done to help advertisers craft ads to a user's preferences and lifestyle.
Blocking the tracking depends on websites honouring requests from users to browse anonymously.
Do Not Track (DNT) has been brokered by the US Federal Trade Commission which wants people to be able to tell websites to stop gathering and sharing data when they visit.
Sites that decide to ignore users' requests to stop tracking them could be subject to FTC action.
A DNT option is available in the recent versions of the Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari browsers. Turning on Do Not Track in Google's Chrome involves installing an add-on.
For DNT to work, websites have to agree to discard any data they would otherwise collect and share about what people do when they visit a site.
In a help document, Twitter said
 it would now respect the Do Not Track option in all the browsers that supported it.
However, it said that those that turn on DNT would notice a change in the information Twitter presented to them.
"We stop collecting the information that allows us to tailor Twitter based on your recent visits to websites that have integrated our buttons or widgets," it said in its help document.
A survey carried out by Mozilla, which makes the Firefox web browser, found that 8.6% of the users of its desktop browser and 19% of mobile browser users were opted in to Do Not Track.


Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw say they have no regrets over their decision to stop playing for South Africa and sign Kolpak deals with Hampshire.

Seamer Abbott, 29, and top-order batsman Rossouw, 27, confirmed their international retirements in January.
Rossouw, in his first season in county cricket, refused to say if his hand had been forced by Cricket South Africa.
"Maybe, maybe not," he told BBC Sport. "I think that story is one I'm going to tell at a different time."
Kolpak contracts allow sportsmen from countries with associate trade agreements with the European Union to be afforded the same right to free movement as EU citizens.
They are not classed as overseas players under the terms of their contracts, but they become ineligible to represent their country at international level.
Abbott and Rossouw's decisions came before Britain's exit from the European Union and they are among several South Africans to make the switch ahead of the new domestic season.
Among the others, all-rounder Simon Harmer has joined Essex,Stiaan van Zyl and David Wiese have moved to Sussex and fast bowler Hardus Viljoen will line up for Derbyshire.
"Right now, I'm just going to enjoy life here in England," Rossouw said, as he prepares to start a three-year contract with Hampshire.
"I'm enthusiastic about the season. I'm 100% clean cut on my decision and I don't think that's going to change any time soon.
"Right now, my home is in England and I want to be here beyond the next three years for Hampshire."
For Abbott, a four-year deal marks a return to the county he last played for as an overseas signing in 2014.
"I made a lot of friends here during my last spell and it just felt like the right place for me," the right-arm pace bowler said.
Abbott broke down in tears when he announced his international retirement after helping South Africa to a home series win against Sri Lanka, but said at Hampshire's pre-season media day that he had come to terms with his reasons for doing so long before it was confirmed.
"I've been comfortable for a long time to be honest," he added. "I've always felt like Hampshire was a home for me. It was a pretty easy transition across here."
Abbott and Rossouw will hope to make immediate impressions for Hampshire when they begin their County Championship Division One campaign against Yorkshire on 7 April.


Divers are working to recover the wreckage of crashed Irish Coastguard helicopter R116 from the sea bed off the Mayo coast in the Republic of Ireland.

Four people died after the helicopter plunged into the sea on 14 March.
Cpt Dara Fitzpatrick died after she was rescued from the sea.
Captain Mark Duffy's body was recovered at the weekend. A search for the bodies of winch operator Paul Ormsby and winch man Ciaran Smith continues.
The search for the missing crew is entering its 13th day. Weather and sea conditions on the west coast have made the operation very challenging for divers.
The helicopter wreckage was found a short distance from Blackrock island, about 10 kms (6.2 miles) off the coastline, at a depth of about 40m.
On Friday, the black box recorder from the rescue helicopter was recovered.
R116 lost contact with the Irish coastguard at about 01:00 on 14 March, as it made its final approach to Blacksod refuelling depot.
The crew had been providing communications support to another coastguard helicopter that had been deployed to take an injured fisherman to hospital.
The wreckage of R116 was pinpointed after search teams deployed a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV), fitted with an underwater camera.


The leaders of seven political parties answered questions in a big TV debate at Media City in Salford on Thursday.

Media playback is unsupported on your device
4 April 2015 Last updated at 08:33 BST
The aim of the debate was to try to convince adults, around the UK, to vote for them in the general election next month.
Leah was there to watch it unfold.


The son of Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone scored on his first league start for Serie A club Genoa.

Giovanni Simeone, 21, gave his side a 47th-minute lead in a 1-1 draw with Pescara on Sunday.
Rey Manaj, on loan from Inter Milan, cancelled out the Argentina Under-20 international's opener with five minutes remaining.
Simeone, born in Madrid, joined the Italian club from Argentina's River Plate in August.
Manaj's equaliser came with Genoa reduced to nine men, after Edenilson had been sent off for a second booking and Goran Pandev was shown a straight red card for dissent.
Genoa have eight points from their first five league games of the season, seven behind leaders Juventus with a game in hand.
Match ends, Genoa 1, Pescara 1.
Second Half ends, Genoa 1, Pescara 1.
Attempt missed. Valerio Verre (Pescara) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Gianluca Caprari.
Hugo Campagnaro (Pescara) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Serge Gakpe (Genoa).
Attempt missed. Valerio Verre (Pescara) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high following a corner.
Corner,  Pescara. Conceded by Diego Laxalt.
Rey Manaj (Pescara) is shown the yellow card.
Attempt blocked. Gianluca Caprari (Pescara) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Attempt missed. Luca Rigoni (Genoa) right footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Serge Gakpe with a cross.
Foul by Gastón Brugman (Pescara).
Serge Gakpe (Genoa) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Goal!  Genoa 1, Pescara 1. Rey Manaj (Pescara) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Francesco Zampano.
Luca Rigoni (Genoa) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Gianluca Caprari (Pescara) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Luca Rigoni (Genoa).
Attempt saved. Diego Laxalt (Genoa) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Serge Gakpe.
Corner,  Pescara. Conceded by Santiago Gentiletti.
Attempt missed. Gianluca Caprari (Pescara) right footed shot from outside the box is too high from a direct free kick.
Substitution, Pescara. Alberto Aquilani replaces Alessandro Crescenzi.
Goran Pandev (Genoa) is shown the red card.
(Pescara) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Goran Pandev (Genoa).
Attempt saved. Ahmad Benali (Pescara) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Corner,  Pescara. Conceded by Ezequiel Muñoz.
Hugo Campagnaro (Pescara) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Hugo Campagnaro (Pescara).
Goran Pandev (Genoa) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt missed. Gianluca Caprari (Pescara) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Valerio Verre following a set piece situation.
Substitution, Genoa. Ezequiel Muñoz replaces Giovanni Simeone.
Second yellow card to Edenilson (Genoa) for a bad foul.
Gianluca Caprari (Pescara) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Edenilson (Genoa).
Corner,  Pescara. Conceded by Edenilson.
Foul by Gastón Brugman (Pescara).
Tomás Rincón (Genoa) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Valerio Verre (Pescara) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Santiago Gentiletti (Genoa).
Attempt saved. Goran Pandev (Genoa) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Santiago Gentiletti.
Substitution, Pescara. Rey Manaj replaces Ledian Memushaj.


Wales' rugby team will face the defending champions, England, in Cardiff this afternoon, on the second weekend of the Six Nations tournament.

It will be the 130th time the Wales and England teams will have played each other.
In their 129 matches against each other since 1881, England have won 60, Wales have won 57 and there's been 12 draws.
We asked you to send in your predictions for the big game.
Wales will definitely win because we have the power of the dragon.
Daniel, Conwy, Wales
I think that England will definitely win.
Jessica, London, England
I will be supporting Wales because they are a really great team and I think they will win lots of points with Lee Halfpenny. Wales are the best!
Kayla, Swansea, Wales
I think that Wales is going to win because they have an amazing kicker Lee Halfpenny and he is sure to score lots of points for Wales.
Hannah, Trowbridge, England
This chat page is now closed. Thank you for your messages.


At least 15 soldiers loyal to Yemen's government have been killed, officials in the south of the country say.

The soldiers were reportedly ambushed in the town of Ahwar in Abyan province, that was seized by al-Qaeda in February.
Officials blamed al-Qaeda for the ambush but the organisation's local wing denied this, Reuters reports.
Al-Qaeda has seized more territory in Yemen in the past year as the country's war continues.
Seventeen other captured soldiers were wounded but still alive, reports say.
Over the past year, the Houthi rebel movement and military units loyal to the former president have been battling a US-backed, Saudi-led coalition supporting the internationally-recognised government.
The United Nations says almost 6,300 people, half of them civilians, have been killed in the fighting.
UN-backed peace talks between the warring factions are due to begin in Kuwait on 18 April.
The so-called Islamic State group (IS) has made gains across Yemen in that time, as has al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), most notably seizing the port city of Mukalla in April last year.
A report by Reuters this week said AQAP now had 1,000 fighters in the city, and brings in revenue of $2m (Â£1.4m) from the port every day. The group is also in control of 600km (370 miles) of coastline, the report said.


The Irish prime minister has called for a provision in any Brexit agreement between the EU and the UK to allow for Irish reunification in line with the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Enda Kenny was speaking in Brussels after meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
He said German reunification provided a precedent for such a provision.
The clause would mean Northern Ireland could potentially enter into the EU without a lengthy accession process.
The taoiseach also suggested the date that most people expected Brexit would be triggered on was likely to be delayed somewhat.
Despite this, he said he hoped to attend the key meetings that will set the priorities for the Brexit talks.
Also speaking after the talks, the European Commission president said the EU does not want a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
"During the Brexit negotiations, the EU and Ireland must work together to minimise the impact," said Mr Juncker.
"We don't want hard borders between Northern Ireland and Ireland."


It was to be Network Rail's £40m answer to one of its biggest challenges - turning Brunel's Great Western railway line electric to allow faster, longer and greener trains to run from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads and beyond to Wales.

Instead, the under-performance of the High Output Plant System, a factory train made up of 23 vehicles, has, according to rail observers, made a big contribution to Network Rail falling at least a year behind schedule and going £900m over budget on the Great Western electrification project.
Yet the train was supposed to make the job of erecting thousands of electrification masts much easier. Two years ago, Network Rail was boasting about how it would slash years off the project.
Network Rail would not comment on the performance of the train, but admitted there had been "hiccups" on what is the first major rail electrification project in the UK for a generation. Rail insiders paint a more calamitous picture.
So what's gone wrong with the Hops train - and what role has it played in Network Rail's current woes?
"The whole electrification project for the Great Western line was really based on the High Output train because of the amount of work it could do so much more quickly," said rail journalist Tony Miles.
"The two went hand-in-hand and the completion date was all really based on working out how many miles this high output train would do every day. And the moment it couldn't do that work it was obvious everything was going to fall apart."
The Hops train was supposed to dig holes, put up overhead wire supports, fill the holes with concrete and hang the wires - at the rate of about a mile each night.
Engineering insiders told the BBC that a newly designed wiring system did not match the specification of the holes the Hops train was designed to dig and that a new design of pile-tubes hammered into the ground to house the thousands of electrification masts - went in too deep after ground surveys were missed.
But, according to Roger Ford of Modern Railways magazine, even where the Hops train has managed to dig holes, it has damaged existing signalling cables. For him, the recent decision to "reset" Network Rail's £38bn maintenance and enhancement programme reveals the size of Network Rail's problems.
"It's short on experienced engineers and experienced operators - people who know how to run a railway. One of the problems is we have a lot of people who run Network Rail who know nothing about railways," he said. "I think we just lost the focus on the operational railway."
Network Rail said the scale and complexity of the work on the Great Western line - some 14,000 electrification masts need to be erected - has presented them with "unique challenges". So far, they had dug some 2,000 holes for the masts and erected 600 masts, with the pace increasing every day.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLaughlin has told Parliament that Network Rail must now "pause" its other big projects - including the politically charged electrification of lines in the north of England and the Midlands - and concentrate its efforts on getting the electrification of the Great Western right.
But Louise Ellman, who chairs the Transport Select Committee, questions whether the other projects will get done at all.
"Costs have escalated, particularly on the Great Western line where the costs have now trebled, and it seems to be that other programmes might lose out as a result," she said.
"What that means in practice is that the work that was planned across the North to electrify the line from Manchester to Leeds and Hull, appears to be paused indefinitely and major works have been stopped on the Midland Mainline - so it's now a big question mark on just what's going to proceed and when."
But, for rail journalists like Tony Miles, just getting the Hops train out of its specially built shed in Swindon - known as the Hoob, or High Output Operating Base - doesn't mean the Great Western electrification is back on solid ground yet.
Obstacles ahead on the Great Western line include untangling the signal, track and electrics around the listed Bristol Temple Meads station in Bristol -  not least because the new inter-city trains bought by the government for this line are too long for Brunel's curved platforms.
"It was decided by the Department for Transport that the new trains will be 26m long per vehicle and our railways are built for 23m long," said Tony Miles. "So if they go around a tightly curved platform the middle bit will scrape on the platform edge. It's simple physics."
The Department for Transport said it was always known that work would be required on the platforms at Bristol Temple Meads to provide the clearance for the new trains - something that was factored into the plans at the start of the project and was part of the overall package of improvements on the line.
The department also assured the BBC that £38bn is still available to make the improvements needed on the UK's railways and said Network Rail had already delivered some improvements.
Network Rail admitted some of their plans for big projects like the Great Western were "overly optimistic", but would work with its new chairman to re-plan the programme in the next few months.
"On the big items like electrification and capital projects, it was always part of the regulatory process that the costs and programme would be revisited as projects became properly defined," said Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne.
"Unfortunately when these reviews have occurred, the more detailed project costs have been higher than assumed at the earliest stages of definition. As a result, the total enhancement programme cost now exceeds the available five-year budget.  Some projects are also delayed beyond the original dates."
Off track: Network Rail on BBC Radio 4's File on 4 is available to listen to after transmission on Tuesday 7 July at 20:00.


A stag which was on the loose in Newry, County Down, has been shot dead by police marksmen.

The animal was in the St Patrick's Avenue area of the city.
Police have said specially trained firearms officers dealt with the incident and that attempts were made to safely and humanely manage the animal.
"Regrettably officers were required to shoot the stag as it had become very agitated and posed a risk to the public," a spokesman said.
David Wilson from the USPCA said the stag had been in a densely populated area of the city and that he was unsure whether the animal was wild or farmed.
Mr Wilson added that deer in built-up areas are not common as it is not their natural habitat and he said when they are out of their own environment, they can be unpredictable.
Local musician Allison McGrath photographed two deer on the outskirts of Newry on Sunday morning and reported them to the PSNI as she thought they could have caused an accident.
She told the BBC News NI the pair jumped off the road into a field of horses, panicking them.
She said she had never seen deer in the area before and is concerned for the safety of the other deer she photographed, assuming that the shot deer was one of those she saw.
Last November, an armed police response unit shot dead a wild stag in the grounds of a County Antrim school after several attempts to safely and humanely manage the animal failed.
The Police Ombudsman has been informed of the incident in Newry.


This could be the Premier League's most goal-crazy season, bookings for simulation are taking a dive, Armenia get themselves on the scoresheet and who has waited the longest amount of time between top-flight goals?

BBC Sport takes a look at the quirkiest and more interesting statistics from the weekend.
After 29 goals were registered across Saturday's six games, stats fans were purring in anticipation at the prospect of a record-breaking weekend of goal action.
Alas, three 1-0 wins on Sunday let the side down, before Liverpool's 2-2 draw with West Ham left a final sting in the tail.
That meant there were 36 goals in total over the weekend - seven short of the Premier League record of 43 set between 5 and 6 February 2011 (since the league was reduced from 22 to 20 teams in 1995).
But there is still hope for the goal fanatics out there - this season is on course to be the highest scoring in the era of a 20-team Premier League.
There have been 434 goals from 150 games this term and if the scoring continues at its current rate, it will reach 1,098 by the time the 380th and final game is played in May.
The record to beat is 1,066 from 2011-12.
And when you take the average number of goals per game, this season's average of 2.89 - if maintained - would be the highest in Premier League history.
Oldham Athletic stayed up and Crystal Palace went down, while Ian Rush, John Barnes, Teddy Sheringham and Peter Ndlovu were all on the scoresheet.
Ace of Base were in the top 10.
When are we talking about? The final day of the 1992-93 season - 8 May 1993.
That is how far back you have to go to find the last time six home teams scored three goals on the same day in the Premier League.
It happened again on Saturday when Watford, Arsenal, Burnley, Hull, Swansea and Leicester all put three goals past their visitors.
For those of you old enough to remember 1993, here's a trip down memory lane.
For those of you not old enough to remember 1993 - yes, Oldham, Coventry and Sheffield United used to be Premier League teams.
Ask most football fans what the scourge of modern football is, and they will probably answer with one of three things: players wearing gloves, feigning injuries and diving.
And this weekend diving flopped itself back on to the agenda when Robert Snodgrass looked suspiciously untouched when he won a penalty for Hull City against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The player apologised, saying he was "riding the tackle". Palace boss Alan Pardew said he should be "embarrassed". BBC Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy called for retrospective punishment.
But have yellow cards for simulation - to use Fifa's jargon - been on the rise in the Premier League?
Interestingly, the answer is no. The highest number of yellow cards dished out for diving was 33 in 2012-13 - 2.64% of the total for the campaign.
The second highest was 27 (2.13%) in 2008-09.
This season, there have been eight bookings for diving - 1.28% of the total of 623 yellow cards. That ratio would be the second lowest since 2007-08 if it continues.
Regardless of how you felt about Robert Snodgrass' means of winning a penalty, there is no doubting his importance to Hull City.
The Scotland international scored the penalty and also provided an assist in the 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace, meaning he has been involved in 50% of his side's goals this season (scoring five, assisting two of Hull's 14 goals).
But that fades in comparison to Jermain Defoe's influence at Sunderland.
The striker, who won the last of his 55 England caps in 2013, has been involved in a monstrous 71.4% of the goals his side have scored in the Premier League this season (scoring eight, assisting two of Sunderland's 14 goals).
"But who has been the most influential player for a team in any particular season?" we hear you cry.
That would be Matt Le Tissier for Southampton in 1993-94. Just the 25 goals and nine assists from his team's 49 goals that season - a 69.4% involvement rate.
Could Defoe be on course to top it?
Hands up those of you who remembered Stefano Okaka scoring for Fulham against West Ham on 2 May 2010.
Give yourself a pat on the back if you did.
The Italian was on loan from Roma at the time and journeyed on to Bari, Parma, Spezia, Sampdoria and Anderlecht before, 2,414 days later, scoring in the Premier League again, this time in Watford's 3-2 win over Everton on Saturday.
Brilliantly though, 2,414 days is nowhere near being the longest period of time a player has waited between scoring a Premier League goal.
That title belongs to no-nonsense defender Matt Jackson, who went a whole 4,935 days (more than 13 years) between Premier League goals - stretching from 8 May 1993 for Everton in a win against Manchester City, all the way to 11 November 2006 when he netted for Wigan in a victory over Charlton.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan's first Premier League goal for Manchester United secured a 1-0 win over Tottenham on Sunday - but it also sealed a small victory for Armenia.
The former Soviet republic, with a population of three million, became the 96th different nation to have a Premier League goalscorer.
But here is the big question: can we reach 100 this season?
Well, technically, yes. It is tenuous, but these are the four players who would have to score this season to bring up the century.
Celina is on loan at FC Twente, so he would need a recall.
Arlauskis is on loan at Espanyol. And he is a goalkeeper. But, you never know...
Have we missed a current Premier League player whose country has never had a goalscorer in the competition? Tell us using #bbcfootball on Twitter.


Residents using the wrong type of wheelie bin have been warned they will not be emptied due to safety concerns.

Mansfield District Council said bins not bought from the authority were more likely to break or fall off lorries while being emptied.
Lost, stolen or missing bins must be replaced at householders' expense and crews will now label and leave those which do not come up to standard.
Resident Peter O'Hare said houses with older, larger bins got a better deal.
Officials said bins bought elsewhere were often of lower grade plastic or had a larger capacity than the 180-litre council limit.
Hayley Barsby from the council said: "There have been occasions where bins have snapped or cracked when placed on the lifting equipment and sometimes they have fallen off while being lifted.
"This is obviously dangerous, not just to our staff but also the public, especially if this happens on a busy road.
"It can also leave a terrible mess if the bin falls off the lifting gear then spills all over the street."
Peter O'Hare, who lives in the Bull Farm area, said he had seen larger bins outside other houses.
"The bin men said they didn't do them any more but we are really struggling.
"We recycle, but with two adults and two children rubbish is a problem - I've had to pay someone else to take it away.
"Why should it matter if it's a private bin or a council bin if it does the job?"


Scotland beat Namibia by 51 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method after rain delays forced the game to carry over into a second day.

The World Cricket League match was halted twice by rain on Sunday, with Scotland finishing their innings on 268-5.
Namibia reached 26-0 before play was abandoned and finished on Monday on 217 from 39.4 overs.
The teams will meet for a second WCL match on Tuesday at Edinburgh's Grange.
Namibia opted to field first after winning the toss and Scotland were 42-2 when the rain first caused a stoppage.
The home side's innings were underpinned by Richie Berrington's 110, his highest score in a one-day international.
After the game was restarted on Monday, the visitors managed to score 217 from 39.4 overs, with Zhivago Groenewald scoring 42 before being caught by Calum MacLeod to signal the end of the tie.
"Richie Berrington played a fine knock on Sunday alongside Craig Wallace who helped get it going, and Preston Mommsen in his comeback game batted brilliantly too," Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer told BBC Scotland.
"A lot of hard graft goes into scoring a hundred like Berrington did, but what made it even better was that Richie had to come on and off about three times because of the weather. That was challenging because he couldn't just get himself set. For Richie to get to 110 and take the team towards that score was something special.
"With Scotland at the moment we've got a pack of bowlers who can really have an impact on the international scene and some batters that are just coming into their real prime, as well as some other players waiting in the wings."


If a child has autism, the risk of a younger sibling also developing the disorder is higher than previously thought, says a large US study.

Writing in Pediatrics, researchers from the University of California Davis studied 664 infants up to the age of three.
They found that the average risk was 18%, not 3-10% as estimated before.
An autism charity says genetics only play a part in the disorder.
Autism is a complex disorder which affects a child's ability to think, communicate, interact and learn.
The study involved infants from 20 different places across the US and Canada, who were six to eight months old at the start of the research. They all had older siblings with autism.
The researchers, from the Mind Institute in California, followed the children's development up to the age of three years, when they tested for autism.
Of the 664 participants, a total of 132 children were found to meet the criteria for an autistic spectrum disorder. Of these, 54 received a diagnosis of autistic disorder and 78 were considered to have a milder form of autism.
All the children were tested using an autism diagnostic tool, which measures non-verbal cognitive, language and motor skills.
Among the study participants, 26.2% of male infants compared to 9% of female infants were diagnosed with a form of autism.
Previous studies have shown that autism is more common in males than females - 80% of all affected children are male.
In families with more than one older sibling with autism in the study, the average risk was 32%.
Prof Sally Ozonoff, lead study author and professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at the Mind Institute, University of California, explained the higher average risk figures in her study.
"Previous studies used different diagnostic criteria. This is the largest study of the siblings of children with autism ever conducted, the first to follow families up to the time of diagnosis as opposed to looking back once they have been diagnosed."
But she was careful to emphasis that the figures were estimates  averaged across all of the families.
"So for some families the risk will be greater than 18%, and for other families it will be less than 18%. At present we do not know how to estimate an individual family's actual risk.
"Genes is a large part of autism, but it's not the whole story. Non-genetic factors are also important, but we don't know exactly what they are."
The National Autistic Society (NAS) says there are over half a million people in the UK with autism - that is around one in 100.
Mark Lever, chief executive of NAS, said the society welcomed the research.
"However, we would like to stress that this study does not mean that all parents of children with autism have an 18% chance of having another child with the condition.
"While genetics are thought to play a part in autism, the condition is not inherited in a straightforward way. Parents of multiple siblings with autism may, however, be at an increased risk of having subsequent children with the condition than those with just one child.
"It is essential that healthcare professionals also take heed of these findings and work proactively with families to monitor the development of siblings of children with autism."


Nick Clegg has said delaying changes to Commons constituency boundaries is "perfectly reasonable" after Lib Dem peers joined with Labour to oppose their introduction in 2015.

Peers voted on Monday to postpone the current boundary review - which would cut MP numbers by 50 - until 2018.
The Lib Dem leader defended his party's stance, saying the Conservatives had not "honoured" pledges on Lords reform.
No 10 says the Tories will try to overturn the vote at the next debate.
The boundary changes, approved in principle by Parliament last year, would see the size of the Commons reduced from 650 to 600 MPs with England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland losing 31, seven, 10 and two seats respectively.
The Boundary Commission is currently examining how individual constituencies across the UK will be redrawn.
The Conservatives say the changes - making all seats roughly the same size in terms of registered voters - would help address a historic bias in the electoral system but Labour have accused them of "gerrymandering" - manipulating areas to get a favourable result.
After last summer's dispute over proposed elections to the House of Lords, the Lib Dems have said they will not support the changes being implemented in time for the next election - scheduled for 2015.
Mr Clegg defended the actions of Lib Dem peers, including ministers, who joined with Labour to pass an amendment to the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill to postpone the boundary review to 2018 at the earliest.
Peers backed the Labour amendment by 300 to 231 votes in what BBC parliamentary correspondent Mark D'Arcy said was the "first occasion" in the coalition's lifetime in which Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers were whipped to vote in opposite lobbies.
Mr Clegg said the coalition partners had had a number of disagreements over political reform over the past two and a half years.
He suggested he had been subject to "highly aggressive and personalised attacks" by the Conservatives during the 2011 referendum on changes to the voting system for Westminster elections.
"You will remember the House of Lords debate where the Conservative Party decided not to proceed with reform even thought it was in their manifesto and the coalition agreement," he told Radio 4's Today programme.
"I have been very open about the fact that a coalition, by definition, is a package deal."
He rejected suggestions that the Lib Dems were "getting their own back" but said that "when one side... does not honour their side of the agreement, it is perfectly reasonable for the other side" to defend their own interests.
He added: "We are leaving the boundary changes on the statute book and saying we should miss a beat and do it in the next Parliament, not this one."
If it is to become law, the Lords amendment will need to be approved by MPs when the bill returns to the House of Commons.
Downing Street has said the government would seek to overturn the Lords amendment when the legislation returned to the Commons towards the end of its parliamentary scrutiny.
Speaking on Monday, a No 10 spokesman said the prime minister "remains of the view that we should have fewer MPs to cut the cost of politics, and more equal size constituencies so that people's votes have more equal weight".


The British Lionhearts' World Series of Boxing clash with Morocco has been cancelled after four members of the visiting team were denied visas.

The bouts were set to take place in Bethnal Green on Thursday but the Home Office refused to allow some of the Morocco Atlas Lions' to enter the UK.
The WSB are yet to rule on whether the match will be rearranged or forfeited in favour of one side or the other.
The Lionhearts were aiming to extend their unbeaten run of four victories.


SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has declared that her party has won a historic third victory in the Holyrood election - but it did not manage an overall majority.

The SNP won 63 seats - two short of a majority which it enjoyed in the last parliament with 69 seats.
The Conservatives are the second largest party on 31. Labour had a dismal night taking 24 seats - down 13.
The Scottish Greens are the fourth largest party with six seats, ahead of the Liberal Democrats who won five.
The SNP would have needed 65 seats to have a majority, a feat it managed in 2011 despite the voting system being designed to prevent one party having overall control.
In 2007, the SNP was the largest party, with one seat more than Labour, but formed a minority government.
Scotland's Additional Member System sees 73 constituency MSPs elected through first-past-the-post and 56 regional MSPs elected, from eight electoral regions, through a form of proportional representation.
The SNP dominated the constituency vote taking 59 of the 73 seats - an increase of six on the 2011 election.
The Conservatives won seven, four up on last time, and the Liberal Democrats took four, an increase of two. The big loser was Labour which won three seats - down 12.
The SNP's dominance was not reflected in the proportional regional system.
The SNP has four regional MSPs - down 12; the Conservatives have 24, up 12; Labour was down one, to 21; the Scottish Greens have six, up four; and the Liberal Democrats won one regional seat, down two on their previous result.
Some of the main headlines from the night:
All of the party leaders in Scotland, with the exception of Labour's Kezia Dugdale, are claiming it has been a successful election.
Ms Sturgeon held her Glasgow Southside seat with a majority of almost 10,000 votes as the SNP won all eight seats in the city - including four from Labour.
Reflecting on her party's wipeout of Labour in its traditional Glasgow heartland, Ms Sturgeon said: "If you had told me when I was a teenager, starting out in politics, that one day the SNP would win every constituency in the city of Glasgow, not just in one election but in two elections, I would scarcely have been able to believe it."
She added: "What is now beyond doubt is that the SNP has won a third consecutive Scottish Parliament election.
"That has never been done before in the history of the Scottish Parliament. We have tonight made history."
Speaking after watching Labour's vote crumble across Scotland, Ms Dugdale said she was "heartbroken, without question".
"This election was always going to be tough for the Scottish Labour Party, just a year after a painful general election defeat," she said.
"But I am proud that our campaign rose to the challenge of offering an alternative vision of what could be done in our new, more powerful parliament."
For Scottish Labour, arguments over their manifesto or personalities are to miss the point. This election was clearly about the constitution.
Scottish politics are still totally dominated by the independence question which was certainly not settled on 18 September 2014 and still seems to take precedence in voters' minds over any other issue.
And it's an issue on which Labour cannot win.
So where does that leave Labour?
If the SNP are the party of independence and the Tories the party of the union, what is the point of the Labour Party?
They will continue to argue that they care most about social justice and poverty. But as long as voters remain split over the constitution that may not win back many voters.
Read more from Sarah
Conservative leader Ruth Davidson hailed an "incredible result" after she took Edinburgh Central from the SNP with a majority of 610.
Reflecting on her party's resurgence and emergence as the biggest opposition party in Scotland, she said: "I hope the message that was resonating was of being a strong opposition, to hold the SNP to account, to saying no to a second independence referendum, to respect the decision that our country made, and to really focus on the things we're paying a government to focus on, on schools, on hospitals, on public services."
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie, who won the Fife North East seat from the SNP, said his party had secured "quite a remarkable result", pointing to successes in different parts of the country.
"If you look at the results in Orkney and Shetland - both over 60% of the vote when people were predicting we were going top be wiped out.
"Then, in North East Fife and Edinburgh West we won from the SNP - winning from the SNP when they seemed to be rampant everywhere else in the country."
The constituency seats which changed hands
The gains and losses


Police are continuing to question a 19-year-old man under anti-terror laws following a series of raids on properties in Cardiff and Barry.

The teenager was one of five men held in the raids on Thursday - four have since been released on bail.
All five were held on suspicion of supporting proscribed organisations.
The 19-year-old is also being questioned on suspicion of preparing or assisting in the preparation of a terrorist act.
Two of the arrested men have been named as Rofi Islam and Sajid Idris.
Officers from the North East Counter Terrorism Unit and the Wales Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit (WECTU) executed six search warrants on Thursday.
WECTU said the investigation "does not concern any immediate threat to public safety".
Thursday's arrests were not linked to two men charged with offences on Wednesday.
Police said the arrests were linked to the Grangetown area of Cardiff and were part of a wider counter-terrorism investigation in Wales, but are not linked to brothers Aseel and Nasser Muthana who went to fight with IS in Syria.
The raids in Grangetown were within a few streets of each other.


Rival militias are battling one another in Tripoli in the heaviest fighting in the Libyan capital for two years.

Medical sources told the BBC that at least eight people, including civilians, have been killed and more than 20 injured.
A new UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) still lacks authority and the country remains volatile.
The French Foreign Ministry said it was "very worried by the escalation of violence".
The BBC's North Africa Correspondent, Rana Jawad, in neighbouring Tunis, said two of the city's largest and most heavily armed militias are fighting an alliance of hard-line Islamists and militias loyal to rival political authorities.
Libya is still politically divided as rival administrations attempt to assert their power.
Clashes are said to be continuing in two main districts in the south of the capital. Tanks and pickup trucks armed with rocket launchers were reportedly deployed in several districts.
Witnesses told the BBC that people stayed at home on Friday morning and many businesses stayed closed.
The new government in Tripoli has not commented on the clashes.
East and central:
West:
Guide to Libya's militias
Profile: Khalifa Haftar
Rogue general divides Libyans


A third Century UKIP would have welcomed St George into the country because of his dragon-slaying skills, the party's Patrick O'Flynn has joked.

He rejected the argument that St George's Day was irrelevant because the saint was from what is now Turkey.
UKIP has called for the day to become a bank holiday.
Conservative PM David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband both urged the country to be proud of England on St George's Day.
Asked whether St George would have been welcomed by a third Century UKIP as a skilled migrant, Mr O'Flynn replied: "Well, I guess dragon-slaying is a skill but whether it is one that's in short supply for the needs of the British economy, we will leave to our migration commission."
Mr Cameron posted a video message on Twitter:
He said people should feel pride for all that "our country has given the world", from the Magna Carta, to the language of Shakespeare to the world wide web.
Mr Miliband tweeted:
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon also tweeted to mark the occasion:
Later, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg sent out a St George's message to his Twitter followers:
At a briefing in central London, UKIP's culture spokesman Peter Whittle said the day should be an "inclusive opportunity" to come together to celebrate common values.
He said: "A country is not just its economy and its identity cannot just be read on a balance sheet. We believe in our hearts and our minds that this is a great country to be proud of and part of," he said.
"But for too long I think we have lived with a political and cultural establishment which has shown a sort of disdain for England and doubted Britain as a whole and has discouraged pride in it."
He added that Britain's culture had been permeated by "their embarrassment about our past and lack of concern for our history".
He said patriotism was often sneered at and society lived in a "state of cultural cringe".
He said his party rejected such negativity and believed benign patriotism was a "force for good".


At Singapore's largest dormitory for foreign workers, Lovlu Mia is cooking chapatis over a hot flame in a giant kitchen.

The 36 year-old Bangladeshi works on construction sites, earning $720 (Â£492) a month and he sends most of it to his wife and five-year-old son back home.
He is one of thousands of migrant workers housed at the Tuas View Dormitory - a huge new complex in Singapore's industrial far west.
In the past, foreign workers' accommodation has been the subject of criticism from human rights groups. So Tuas View, with beds for 16,800 men and medical and shopping facilities, is being hailed as the ideal model for housing them.
It's like a small town, with a mini-market, a food court, a medical clinic and a dentist.
Employers pay the bills - $220 per month for a bed and a locker. The workers' laundry and cleaning are done for them.
There's also a well-equipped gym and a cricket pitch. At night the men watch the latest Bollywood movies on a large outdoor screen. There's even a view of the sea.
But for the residents there is a trade-off. While they enjoy better facilities here, they give up some privacy.
Each time they arrive home, workers are required to give their fingerprints. Almost 250 CCTV cameras monitor them.
"If the company is saying to us: 'What time did he come in? What time did he go out? Because he's not been coming to work, he's disappearing', we can give them a record," says Mr V Ranjan, the dormitory's camp manager.
Surveillance also means that if a crime were to occur, dormitory authorities could supply information to police, he adds.
Some argue the plan is partly motivated by a desire to separate these workers from mainstream society. In 2013 a rare migrant worker riot broke out in the city's Little India district. Police cars were burned and officers attacked.
Jolovan Wham, from Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME), says he believes the thinking behind the big out-of town dormitories is "to keep [migrant workers] out of the mainstream as much as possibleâ€¦ so outbreaks of violence will be less likely to happen or, if they do, it will be easier to contain".
Mr R Subra, a consultant at Tuas View, has been in the business of housing such workers for two decades. He says the construction of new super-dorms like his are not linked to the riot, but the result of long-term government planning aimed at improving their lot.
But, he adds, if those workers are provided with enough on-site facilities, then aside from going to work, they won't need to venture out much into the wider community.
"When they go into the neighbourhood, maybe certain Singaporeans will not welcome them," he said. "So we are trying to keep these people as much as possible in the dormitory complex so they will be happy."
Residents of Tuas View come from countries including India, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Thailand and the Philippines. They work in blue-collar industries like construction, shipping, oil and gas, and pharmaceuticals.
The workers, who sleep 12 to a room, are free to come and go as they please. But the dorm is about as far from the city centre as you can get.
"Here the air is very fresh," says Gogo Perez, a father of three from the Philippines. "And if you want to exercise you have a lot of places, a gym and a basketball court."
It's very different to how many of Singapore's migrant workers live.
They are spread throughout the city, in accommodation ranging from temporary set-ups on construction sites, to crowded rooms above shops.
The BBC was given a video of a dormitory attached to a factory - a narrow, cramped room full of rudimentary bunk beds, with no mattresses, just wooden boards. We were told 25 people were living in it.
More photos of other dorms provided by the workers' advocacy group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) revealed similarly crowded and unsanitary conditions.
But despite its advantages the dormitory at Tuas View is still less than half full. Many employers are resisting accommodating their workers in such facilities, because other places are cheaper.
Workers' advocates say the lack of privacy is not something migrant workers complain about. They have come to expect close scrutiny.
In fact TWC2's Debbie Fordyce says foreign workers rarely complain about anything, as long as they're getting paid.
Last year Singapore introduced legislation regulating living conditions in large-scale accommodation. A spokesperson from the Ministry of Manpower says the needs of foreign workers are better met through purpose-built dormitories with adequate living space and recreational facilities. And it says these are generally located no more than about 25 kilometres from the city centre.
Debbie Fordyce says she's all in favour of the government improving workers' accommodation but still has reservations about how it's being done.
"We hear the government talking about having a better relationship with foreign workers, but we see them housed in these far off places and it looks like a type of apartheid."


Northern Ireland peer and industrialist Lord Ballyedmond was one of four people killed in a helicopter crash.

The helicopter came down in a field near his stately home in Gillingham, near Beccles, Norfolk, on Thursday.
Lord Ballyedmond, who was one of Northern Ireland's richest men, and the three other people on board, all confirmed as male, died at the scene.
One of the victims was Declan Small, 42, from Mayobridge, County Down.
It is not known what caused the crash but witnesses reported fog in the area at the time and said the helicopter came down very soon after taking off at about 19:30 GMT.
A spokesman for the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said it would be sending a team to the area.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland has been contacted by Norfolk Police for assistance.
The helicopter has been confirmed as an Agusta Westland AW139.
Supt Dave Marshall, of Norfolk police, said: "Police, along with our emergency service colleagues and the Air Accident Investigation Branch are now working towards the dignified removal of the four bodies, which is expected to take place this afternoon, full examination of the scene and opening roads as quickly as possible.
"The cordon is in place to keep areas sterile and allow the investigation to be carried out sensitively and safely."
Tributes have been paid to Dr Edward Haughey, who became Lord Ballyedmond of Mourne when he was created a life peer in 2004.
He was a leading industrialist and owned veterinary pharmaceutical firm Norbrook Laboratories in Newry, County Down, and had a range of other business interests.
As well as being a member of the House of Lords, he was a former member of the Irish senate.
Ulster Unionist peer Lord Reg Empey, who has known the Haughey family for 25 years, said: "Lord Ballyedmond was one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland and indeed these islands.
"He brought high-quality employment opportunities to this country during its darkest days.
"This tragic accident has cut short the life of a man who had still much to give. The family circle will be numbed by the tragedy."
Ulster Unionist Stormont assembly member Danny Kennedy said he was stunned to hear of his death.
"He will be sadly missed throughout the business community in Northern Ireland and wider afield. I offer my deepest sympathies to Lady Mary and the children."
South Down SDLP MP Margaret Ritchie said he was unique.
"He was a major employer in the County Down area and invested a lot of money.
"He got up and at it and he possessed those attributes required to make you a successful businessman, but he also was a major employer and a lot of families had connections with him through that."
In December 1996 a helicopter owned by Lord Ballyedmond crashed on Carlingford Mountain in the  Republic of Ireland killing three people.
It was en route to his Rostrevor home.
Gillingham is a small village in the south of Norfolk with a population of about 650.
Norfolk Police said the crash site would remained cordoned off during the day while examinations of the scene were carried out.
The site of the crash is about 45 miles from where four crew members died when a US military helicopter crashed on a training mission in a nature reserve in Cley next the Sea, Norfolk, in January.


The UK's energy system needs major reform, with the National Grid replaced by a US-style independent operator, a committee of MPs has said.

National Grid, which owns and operates the UK's gas and electricity networks, faces "conflicts of interest", said the Energy and Climate Change Committee.
Despite its "technical expertise", it should be broken up, the MPs said.
But National Grid said there was "little evidence" that switching to the US system would bring any benefits.
The committee said that the change was necessary because more power was being generated by regional networks, making energy flows more complicated.
The committee complained of "legislative and regulatory inertia" and said small-scale generators, such as solar power producers, faced problems in connecting to the grid.
"The UK needs clean, renewable power, but it won't be built if it's too costly or difficult for generators to connect to the electricity grid," said committee chairman Angus MacNeil.
"Distribution networks have been overwhelmed at times by the challenge of integrating small-scale renewables."
The Independent System Operator (ISO) system advocated by the committee is used in the US. An ISO oversees the electrical power system in one or more states. The committee would like to see it adopted for energy transmission at a national level, while regional operators would control power flows locally.
"The Independent System Operator model has worked in the USA. It is time for it to be brought to these shores," said Mr MacNeil.
National Grid, a private company listed on the London Stock Exchange, rejected the committee's findings.
"There is little evidence that an Independent System Operator model would provide any benefits that would justify the cost to households, potential disruption to much of the energy sector, and the risks to security of supply such uncertainty could create," a spokeswoman said.


Renewable sources of energy have generated more electricity than coal and gas in Great Britain for the first time.

National Grid reported that, on Wednesday lunchtime, power from wind, solar, hydro and wood pellet burning supplied 50.7% of UK energy.
Add in nuclear, and by 2pm low carbon sources were producing 72.1% of electricity in Great Britain.
Wednesday lunchtime was perfect for renewables being both sunny and windy.
Records for wind power are being set across Northern Europe.
The National Grid, the body that owns and manages the power supply around the UK, said in a tweet: "For the first time ever this lunchtime wind, nuclear and solar were all generating more than both gas and coal combined."
On Tuesday, a tenth of the UK's power was coming from offshore wind farms - a newcomer on the energy scene whose costs have plummeted far faster than expected.
So much power was being generated by wind turbines, in fact, that prices fell to a tenth of their normal level.
Environmentalists will salute this new record as a milestone towards the low carbon economy.
Critics of renewable energy sources will point to the disruption renewables cause to the established energy system.
At the time of Wednesday's record, 1% of demand was met by storage; this will have to increase hugely as Great Britain moves towards a low-carbon electricity system.
Follow Roger on Twitter: @rharrabin


Tony Nicklinson scans the screen, blinks, and then his words - which he has painstakingly compiled - are read out by a computer-generated voice.

Mr Nicklinson can do almost nothing for himself - nothing except make a few eye and head movements.  But it is enough for him to make his views crystal clear.
Although he was paralysed by a stroke in 2005, his intellect is intact.  I met him and his wife Jane at their home in Wiltshire in advance of his High Court hearing.
Mr Nicklinson wants the courts to allow a doctor to give him to give him a lethal dose - it is a direct challenge to the law on murder.
It takes Mr Nicklinson a minute or two to compose each sentence.    A sensor at the bottom of the screen tracks his eye movements and when he settles on the letter or word he wants, he blinks.  I interviewed him at his home in Wiltshire a few days ago.
His care needs are too complex to allow him to make the journey to court.
I have reported his case several times so I was glad to meet him and to try to understand a little more about his life and why he wants to be allowed to die.
He told me "each day is getting that little bit more uncomfortable and harder to bear".
You can watch the interview by clicking the box above.
The hearing at the High Court represents a fundamental challenge to the law on murder.  In amounts to an appeal to allow euthanasia which is strictly prohibited.
It goes further than the case of Diane Pretty, who had motor neurone disease.  The House of Lords rejected her appeal in 2001 to allow her husband to assist her suicide.
Tony Nicklinson is paralysed from the neck down so he could not pick up and drink a lethal cocktail prepared by another.  Instead he wants a doctor to administer the lethal dose.
So what are the arguments which Tony Nicklinson's legal team will use in court?
First they will try the common law defence of necessity against a murder charge - arguing that the only way to end his suffering is to allow him to die.   This is judge-made and judge-interpreted law - it's not written down in statute.
Necessity was used successfully in 2000 in the case of conjoined twins - doctors had to separate them in order to allow one to live.  They knew the other twin would die, but necessity demanded they sacrifice one to save the other, otherwise both would have perished.
This case is very different, and I have re-read the judgement in the Pretty case at the House of Lords, and there the same argument of necessity was rejected.
Mr Nicklinson's team will also argue that his case is covered by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights which deals with the right to respect for private and family life.
This does not mention a right to death, but this part of the Convention has been frequently used in assisted suicide cases.
Mr Nicklinson will not be at court as his care needs are too complex to allow him to journey from Wiltshire to London.
The hearing at the High Court will last a few days and then judgement is expected to be reserved until a later date.
The case raises huge ethical and social issues which will spark major debate in the weeks ahead. Win or lose, Mr Nicklinson can be assured that the issue of whether there is a right to die will be discussed in great detail by judges, politicians, the media and the public.


Iceland's European Championship last-16 win over England "shocked the world", according to defender Kari Arnason.

They will play hosts France in the quarter-final on Sunday after goals from Ragnar Sigurdsson and Kolbeinn Sigthorsson knocked out England and forced manager Roy Hodgson to resign.
Iceland, ranked 34th in the world, were surprise qualifiers for what is their first international tournament.
"We all believed. The rest of the world didn't but we did," said Arnason.
Iceland's population is just 329,000 - not many more than live in Coventry and almost 10 times fewer than Wales - and it is believed 8% of those are in France following their side.
The island nation, which has no professional clubs, ranked 131st in the world during the last European Championships four years ago.
"This is without a doubt the biggest result in Icelandic football history. We've shocked the world," added Arnason.
Wayne Rooney put England ahead with a fourth-minute penalty but Iceland were ahead by the 18th minute and held on comfortably despite Hodgson's side having 18 attempts on goal.
Iceland defender Sigurdsson, 29, accused England of complacency against a side who had already held Portugal and Hungary and beaten Austria during the group stage.
"They thought this would be a walk in the park but we had faith in our ability," Sigurdsson said.
"It went well. We didn't feel that England created any chances. We were just heading away long balls. I wasn't stressed in the second half."
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Iceland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson - joint manager with former Sweden boss Lars Lagerback - praised his side for taking their chances and is in confident mood for Sunday's quarter-final in Paris.
"I was more relaxed than during the game against Austria," he said.
"If someone had told me a few years ago that we would reach the last eight, I have to say I would not believe it.
"But no obstacle is too big for these guys now. If you want the best out of life you have to be ready when the opportunity comes. That is a fact and these boys were ready and this opportunity that was put in our hand was huge - it can change their lives.
"We are optimistic. Some Icelanders maybe think we are too optimistic, that we don't think we can fail, but we have a gameplan."
Icelandic TV commentator Gudmundur Benediktsson went viral last week with his excited reaction to the win over Austria and he was at it again during the win in Nice - even seeming to reference the result of Britain's EU referendum.
"This is done! This is done! We are never going home! Did you see that! Did you see that!" he said.
"Never wake me from this amazing dream!
"Live the way you want England! Iceland is going to play France on Sunday. France-Iceland! You can go home. You can go out of Europe.
"You can go wherever the hell you want. England 1 Iceland 2 is the closing score here in Nice. And the fairytale continues."
Create leagues and play against your friends in BBC Sport's new Euro 2016 Predictor game


Stone balance artists are being urged to take part in Europe's first stone-stacking championship in East Lothian.

Dunbar Street Art Trail are holding the competition in Dunbar on Saturday 22 April to celebrate Earth Day.
The winner will be invited to participate in the World Stone Stacking Championships held annually in Llano, Texas.
The competition will feature four categories, including a children's competition.
James Page, Dunbar Street Art Trail co-founder, said: "Stone stacking is both art and meditation, using free materials found on beaches and in parks.
"You can create temporary artistic monuments for passers-by to enjoy."
Fellow co-founder Steven Hill said: "The importance of street art in our society is to bring attention and focus to art forms in a free and accessible way.
"Stone stacking is ideal because it's not only free to watch but it's free to try."


There is a "steely resolve" among Northern Ireland's political parties to save the power-sharing institutions, an Irish government minister has said.

A crisis has developed at Stormont after the murder of an ex-IRA man and the Ulster Unionist Party's subsequent withdrawal from the executive.
Negotiations between the five main parties are due to begin this week in an attempt to find a resolution.
Irish Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan said "every party is up for talks".
The discussions, led by Northern Ireland Secretary of State Theresa Villiers, will cover two issues - welfare reform and paramilitary activity.
The murder of Kevin McGuigan Sr last month caused a political row after Northern Ireland's police chief said members of the Provisional IRA had a role in the killing, and that the organisation still existed.
That was rejected by Sinn FÃ©in - it said the IRA had "gone away".
But the Ulster Unionists said Sinn FÃ©in's denial that the IRA existed caused a breakdown in trust and it left its government role.
On welfare reform, the British government has said it will legislate on the proposed changes in Northern Ireland if the Stormont parties cannot reach agreement.
The parties had agreed on a welfare reform deal in December, but there has been deadlock on the issue since Sinn FÃ©in withdrew its support in March.
Mr Flanagan said each of the main parties had told him of their "hurt and frustration" over those matters.
"But underneath that, I have discerned a deep and steely resolve to save the power-sharing institutions," he added.
"Every party is up for talks because, whether they are articulating it or not, every party knows what is at stake - the survival of the power-sharing institutions themselves."
Mr Flanagan said failure in the discussions would be a "serious setback for the people of our island".
He added that each party had to enter the talks "knowing compromises and courage will be required".
The SDLP claimed that Ms Villiers' announcement that the government would take welfare reform powers away from Stormont was designed to help the DUP.
"The DUP have been looking for cover to go into talks, so as is their nature they have been insider-dealing, this time with the British government," SDLP MLA Alex Attwood said.
"And the British government has given them some ground.
"But the rest of us cannot be derailed from making these talks work."
However, the DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said if welfare reform is not resolved public finances will collapse.


Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, one of the current frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination, wants to make abortion illegal in all instances, including cases of rape and incest.

He told an NBC News interviewer on Sunday that he's a "reasonable person", however, and he'd listen if someone can come up with a "reasonable explanation for why they would like to kill a baby". Women, however, should not look at their foetus as "the enemy".
To illustrate his point, Mr Carson - whose understated yet forceful condemnations of liberal orthodoxy made him a darling on the conservative lecture circuit before he launched his presidential bid - offered an analogy that compared women seeking abortions to slaveholders.
"I know that's one of those words you're not supposed to say, but I'm saying it," Mr Carson began. "During slavery, a lot of slave-owners thought they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave, anything that they chose. And what if the abolitionists had said, 'I don't believe in slavery, but you guys do whatever you want'? Where would we be?"
Mr Carson has made a habit of saying what he's "not supposed to say" and then deriding the subsequent firestorm as attacks from "politically correct" critics.
The retired doctor has said President Barack Obama's healthcare reform was "the worst thing" since slavery and that the US government is acting like Nazi Germany. He asserted that being gay is a choice, Muslims aren't qualified to seek the US presidency, the Holocaust could have been prevented if persecuted Europeans owned more guns and - just a few days ago - that the US government should cut off funding to universities that are found to exhibit "extreme political bias".
Mr Carson's comments on abortion have set off yet another cycle of outrage from the left - a reaction that he will likely wear as a badge of honour.
"Carson's comments are part of a larger disinformation campaign by Christian fundamentalists and other elements of the American right in which examples from the United States' slave regime are used to delegitimise women's full equality and freedom," writes Salon's Chauncey Devega.
The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart writes: "Carson is a crackpot who should get nowhere near the White House, let alone the presidential nomination of a major political party. His incendiary and ignorant comments - not political correctness, not racism - are the cause of the 'relentless attacks' on him."
At one point, according to the New York Times, Mr Carson's political team was concerned about their candidate's propensity to make off-the-cuff statements that provoked outrage. In the end, however, they decided to "let Carson be Carson" - and the results have validated their instincts so far.
Much like fellow Republican frontrunner Donald Trump before him, Mr Carson has soared in public opinion polls of likely Republican primary voters despite controversial statements that would sink more traditional politicians.
In recent surveys of Iowa, the state where voters will first help select presidential nominees, Mr Carson has tied or even taken the lead from Mr Trump. In a Monmouth University poll released Monday, Mr Carson is backed by 32%, 14 points over second-place Trump.
This development has prompted the New York billionaire to begin targeting Mr Carson.
He remarked this weekend that the soft-spoken candidate is "super low on energy". He told a CNN interviewer that Mr Carson wouldn't be able to make deals with nations like Japan and China.
He tweeted that Mr Carson wasn't a job-creator and would abolish, the government-run healthcare system for the elderly. He also raised questions about Mr Carson's particular brand of evangelical Christianity.
"I'm Presbyterian," he said during a campaign stop in Florida. "Boy, that's down the middle of the road. I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don't know about. I just don't know about."
In the same interview where he made his abortion remarks, Mr Carson said the he wouldn't get in the "mud pit" to respond to attacks, but noted that he had the energy to conduct 20-hour surgeries when he was a practising physician.
As the Washington Examiner's Byron York points out, Mr Carson presents a tricky opponent for the other Republican presidential hopefuls. While Mr Trump has decided to go on the attack, others have been reluctant to follow suit by criticising the physician's lack of governing experience.
Veteran political operatives, he writes, are concerned that Mr Carson's high popularity in polls means any attack will backfire.
"Republican candidates have a Ben Carson problem," York writes. "He's ahead of most of them. They want to win. But how do they defeat him without offending the voters who admire him? No one has yet found the answer."
With just over three months before Iowans head to the polls and other states quickly follow suit, the clock is ticking.
Candidates in (and out of) the Republican presidential field


Stephane Charbonnier, editor of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, was among four cartoonists killed in the Paris massacre which left 12 people dead in total.

Charbonnier, known as "Charb", was 47. He had received death threats in the past and had been under police protection.
Reports say he was in an editorial meeting with the others when two masked gunmen burst in and opened fire with Kalashnikov assault rifles. The gunmen reportedly shouted "Allahu akbar!" (God is great).
The left-wing magazine's famous cartoonists went by nicknames - the others who died were called Cabu, Tignous and Wolinski.
Charb had strongly defended Charlie Hebdo's cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad.
"Muhammad isn't sacred to me,'' he told the Associated Press in 2012, after the magazine's offices had been fire-bombed.
"I don't blame Muslims for not laughing at our drawings. I live under French law. I don't live under Koranic law."
In 2007 Charlie Hebdo also defended itself in court over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, reprinted in the magazine, which had angered Muslims.
But Charlie Hebdo's anti-establishment satire was wide-ranging - it included poking fun at the far right, and aspects of Catholicism and Judaism.


A man has been arrested after a taxi driver who stopped to help at the scene of a crash was struck and killed by a passing vehicle.

Police had taken a call from the driver who reported a car had hit the central reservation on the A19 in North Tyneside on Saturday.
He got out of his vehicle on the dual carriageway near Killingworth.
A 24-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has been informed as a "matter of protocol", Northumbria Police said.


Police investigations are continuing into violence following Hibernian's win over Rangers in the Scottish Cup final.

Rangers said its players and backroom staff were assaulted when fans invaded the pitch at Hampden Park on Saturday.
The former chief executive of the Scottish Football Association (SFA), Gordon Smith, warned that Hibs could face SFA sanctions over the incident.
Eleven people have been arrested for minor offences, according to Police Scotland.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland, Mr Smith said news of the violence was receiving international attention.
He said: "It is sad because this is going around the world - the world has seen this and it is a bad reflection on Scottish football and I think possibly there will be rules reset for future games.
"They [the SFA] will definitely be looking at this and bringing in some measures that would try and avoid this happening again."
An investigation by the SFA is likely to look at ways the violence could have been avoided, he added.
"It might have helped if there had been more of a police presence around the ground just to stop this happening because I think it was mainly stewards that were there and I don't think there was much of a police presence at that point when the final whistle blew," Mr Smith said.
Rangers have demanded an independent investigation into the "shameful scenes" following their 3-2 defeat.
It was the Edinburgh club's first cup win since 1902.
In a statement released on Sunday, Rangers criticised the response of the the SFA, Hibernian, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the BBC to the incident.
One Hibs fan who went on to the pitch after the final whistle told BBC Radio Scotland's Kaye Adams Programme that most of those involved were not violent.
"I can understand why a lot of Rangers fans were scared but I don't understand why everyone's making it out to be that there was thousands of Hibs fans running on the pitch looking for trouble because that's not the case at all," he said.
"There was a minority looking for trouble and you get that with every team. I hope the Hibs fans who were there who attacked everyone get caught and get banned and aren't allowed back at football."
Another witness who watched the scenes from the hospitality area said she saw players being assaulted and people being attacked with a corner flag.
"I thought it was shameful and there's no place for this in Scottish football," she added.
"It happened because there wasn't enough policing, there wasn't enough stewards."
But Calum Steele, of the Scottish Police Federation, told Good Morning Scotland that the police response was "nothing short of remarkable".
He said: "The speed and the skill, the agility and indeed the brilliance with which the police officers from the police service of Scotland brought events under control is something that should be praised to the highest heavens."
He added: "It almost doesn't matter what the police service had done, they would have been criticised regardless.
"Had there been hundreds or many, many more hundreds of police officers on the track before the final whistle in a sea of yellow jackets and possibly even shields, I suspect today's discussions would have been about the very heavy-handed approach that the police had taken in what was otherwise a very enjoyable football match."
Police brought horses on to the Hampden pitch to control the crowds, including a section from the Rangers end of the ground.
The pitch invasion delayed the presentation of the trophy and there was no lap of honour for Hibs players.
Rangers players were not able to pick up their cup final medals.
After Saturday's game, SFA chief executive Stewart Regan said it was "appalled" by the scenes of disorder and the "contemptible behaviour that ensued".
"The Scottish FA, along with Police Scotland and the stadium management, have initiated a full investigation into the scenes that unfolded to understand how such a volume of supporters were able to enter the field," he added.
The Scottish government said it is also "liaising closely" with the organisations involved in the inquiry.
A spokeswoman added:  "Violence has absolutely no place in football, either on or off the pitch.
"The First Minister condemns unreservedly any act of violence or disorder by anyone who attended the Cup Final.
"It is for the police to take action against anyone suspected of having committed an offence."


An animal welfare charity has launched an appeal to locate the owner of a dog found wandering on the top of the highest mountain in England.

The black and tan male collie cross was picked up at the summit of Scafell Pike in the Lake District on Saturday by a couple of Scottish holidaymakers.
Concerned about its wellbeing, they took it home and handed it to the Scottish SPCA rescue centre in Glasgow.
The charity now wants to locate the owner of the dog, nicknamed Scafell.
The dog, which had not been microchipped, is believed to be aged between five and eight years old.
Described as "petrified and nervous" when found, it took the couple, from Maybole, South Ayrshire, about half an hour to coax it over to them.
Anna O'Donnell, from the Glasgow centre, said: "At this stage it's all a bit of a mystery but we believe Scafell may have been taken up the mountain by his owner and become lost.
"There is also a chance he was abandoned and made his own way up to the top.
"It would be fantastic if we are able to reunite him with his owner if he has gone missing. If not, we will find him a loving new home in Scotland."
At 978m (3,209ft), Scafell Pike is the highest peak in England.


The Finance Minister Arlene Foster has introduced the Budget Number 2 Bill to the Northern Ireland Assembly chamber.

The first stage of the bill is a brief procedure lasting no more than a couple of minutes.
The bill will be debated and put to a vote when on it reaches its second stage on Monday next week.
It has been described as a fantasy or phantom budget as it presupposes the parties will be able to resolve their differences over welfare reform.