Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Air Discount Scheme currently applies to residents of Caithness, Colonsay, Islay, Jura, North West Sutherland, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles who benefit from discounted air fares when travelling to and from those places.

None.

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.

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.

None.

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.

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.

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 currently carrying out research on the impact of (a) habitat loss and (b) intensive farming on the bee population, as a joint-funder of the Insect Pollinator Initiative (IPI)

The IPI researches the causes and consequences of insect pollinator decline. It is jointly funded by the Scottish Government, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs , the Natural Environment Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the Living With Environmental Change programme. The funders came together because innovative research was urgently needed to provide a solid evidence base with which to inform new policies and approaches to reduce threats to pollinator insects.

This initiative was set up in 2010, in part through the lobbying by British bee-keepers, and runs until 2014. There are nine separate IPI projects: one of these examines the impacts of habitat structure in a farmed landscape on bumblebees and two others examine how changes in agricultural land use and land management practices are affecting bees and other wild pollinators.