Chamber and committees

This is a local initiative and, although Transport Scotland and Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) have no plans to undertake any work in connection with proposals to restore air services to Skye, at a recent meeting with the FlySkye campaign group I confirmed that HIAL would be available to offer advice on specific regulatory/operational issues. Highlands and Islands Enterprise are a member of the steering group that has been formed to take the proposals forward and will be involved in work undertaken by the group.

None.

The Scottish Government has no plans for future air services from Skye. An air service from Skye would require significant initial capital investment and ongoing subsidy. We expect any funding to be identified at a local level by the Highland Council, as the owner of the aerodrome, and HITRANS.

The issue of access to London airports by flights from Scotland’s airports was raised by the First Minister at the Joint Ministerial Committee on 19 September 2012 which was attended by the Secretary of State for Transport. The issue was also raised with the Department for Transport on 12 October 2012 at a stakeholder event for the UK Government’s Draft Aviation Policy Framework Consultation.

The Scottish Government has had no discussions or meetings with the Department for Transport in the last year about the imposition of public service obligations on routes between Scotland and London.

The group of Scottish Government agencies responsible for promoting air connectivity (known as “Team Scotland”) will take every opportunity in their ongoing engagement with airlines to promote the start-up of new routes and the expansion of existing services from Scotland. Should Skye Airport become operational then the same type of support would be available to it as is available to other Scottish airports.

The Scottish Government has not sought legal advice regarding the possibility of imposing a public service obligation on the air route between London and Inverness.

The Scottish Government has made no assessment of the possibility of using the new programme of structural funds for the development of airport facilities in Broadford, Skye. Although as the owner of the airport facilities it would primarily be for Highland Council to make any such assessment, at a recent meeting with the FlySkye campaign group I confirmed that Transport Scotland would be able to offer advice on this.

None.

HMO

(a) The following table provides information on the total number of fires attended by Scottish Fire and Rescue Services for dwelling HMOs from 2009-10 to 2011-12. Prior to 2009-10 fires in HMOs could not be identified in the data.

Source: IRS Dataset 2011-12.

Notes:

1. p – provisional.

2. The data provided here uses the definition of HMOs that is used for the Incident Recording System (IRS). The data provided includes dwellings that are HMOs and are sub-categorised as: “licensed”, “unlicensed” and “licensed unknown”. The dwelling category excludes hotels, hostels and residential institutions.

(b) There was one fatal fire in a dwelling HMO in 2010-11 in Aberdeen city.

Hostels

(a) Information is not centrally held on fires involving people considered vulnerable because they (i) are homeless, (ii) have mental health issues and (iv) are recovering from substance misuse. The following table provides information on the total number of fires attended by Scottish Fire and Rescue Services in hostels between 2009-10 and 2011-12. Prior to 2009-10 fires in hostels could not be identified in the data.

Source: IRS Dataset 2011-12.

Notes:

1. p – provisional.

2. The data provided here uses the definition of hostels that is used for the Incident Recording System (IRS).

3. Hostels include all types of hostels except youth hostels.

4. In fire data HMOs and hostels are different categories of premises.

(b) There were no fatal fires recorded in hostels in the last three years.

The Scottish Government is aware that research has shown that declines have been observed for 4 of the 12 Scottish species of social bumblebees as the result of losses of flower-rich habitats: bilberry (Bombus monticola), moss carder (B. muscorum), red-shanked carder (B. ruderarious) and the great yellow bumblebee (B. distinguendus). The other species are believed to be either stable or increasing.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has supported and promoted several initiatives, including working in conjunction with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, to address the decline of bumblebees and other wild bees and the potential consequences to Scottish biodiversity.

SNH is in the early stages of preparing a bee action plan. They will liaise with the relevant organisations and individuals to ensure a pragmatic and evidence-based way forward. The plan will address the complexity of issues which compound to cause declines in bumblebee populations and, in particular, it will recognise the large-scale measures which are necessary to halt or reverse declines. Reversing the impact of agricultural intensification and the loss of unimproved grassland on bee populations will be key to this: such objectives are heavily dependent on mechanisms to support large-scale, sympathetic management of habitat, including those that might be available under the Scotland Rural Development Programme.

In addition to influencing core management practices, SNH will also be considering action to monitor the effects of the ban on neonicotinoids and developing the licensing system to prevent the introduction of invasive non-native species in pollination boxes. SNH will be preparing publications which encourage citizen science involvement in record collection to help gain a better understanding of the distribution of some of our native bees.