Chamber and committees

The 2012 target is not about eradicating all homelessness but about ensuring that, by the end of December 2012, all unintentionally homeless households applying to their local authority for assistance will be entitled to settled accommodation.

The terms of the Homelessness etc (Scotland) Act 2003 do not provide for any specific penalty to be applied to a local authority that does not meet the 2012 target. Local authorities could face legal action through existing legislation which allows applicant households to utilise their rights to go to the Court of Session for Judicial Review. In addition, the Scottish Housing Regulator may take a view on performance if a local authority is not fulfilling its responsibilities under the homelessness legislation.

Homelessness statistics are published every six months from quarterly returns provided by local authorities. These provide an indication of progress towards the target that by the end of December 2012 all unintentionally homeless households will be entitled to settled accommodation. The key statistic is the percentage of homelessness assessments that are in priority need; the closer a local authority is to 100%, then the closer it is to meeting the 2012 target. At present, local authorities are assessing 88% of homeless households as being in priority need.

Local authorities, working in partnership within five geographical “Hubs” are preventing homelessness through the introduction of an innovative housing options approach. This approach to homelessness prevention is making the 2012 target more achievable. Scottish Government officials work closely with the Hubs and understand the progress local authorities are making to meet the 2012 target.

Forestry Commission Scotland expects to publish further information about woodland loss in April 2012. The method for gathering this information includes an analysis of the Commission’s own records and an investigation of the extent of woodland loss resulting from development. The report is expected to give information by species type (e.g. “Sitka spruce”, “mixed conifer” and “mixed broadleaf”) and by cause (e.g. habitat restoration and windfarm development). As part of this exercise, the commission will consider how best to capture and when to publish similar information in the future.

Under the National Forest Land Scheme, communities or housing bodies can apply to buy or lease areas of land that are owned by Scottish Ministers and managed by Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS), even where such land has not been declared surplus or for sale. The scheme covers all the forests, woods, open land and other property managed by FCS. It is subject to a number of criteria, such as the need to demonstrate community support and a requirement that proposals should not be significantly detrimental to the wider management of the estate.

More specific arrangements apply to community-led renewable energy developments. FCS has recently published a map showing areas (totalling 540,000 hectares) that are potentially available through the National Forest Land Scheme for community-led hydro development; communities should register their interest by 30 June 2012. A similar map will be produced for community-led wind renewable energy schemes by the end of January 2012.

The right tree in the right place was published in 2010.

(a) The following local authorities have published a forestry and woodland strategy. Depending on the date of production these may or may not directly follow the right tree in the right place guidance, but all of these strategies are formally linked to or referred to in the development plan:

Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire

Argyll and Bute

Ayrshire

Cairngorms National Park

Clackmannanshire and Stirling

Dumfries and Galloway

Dundee

Falkirk

Fife

Glasgow and Clyde Valley

Highland

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park

Moray

Orkney Islands

Scottish Borders

Shetland Islands

Western Isles.

(b) We understand that the following local authorities are in the process of producing or updating their forestry and woodland strategies and are following the Right Tree in the Right Place guidance:

Aberdeen City

Angus

Ayrshire

Clackmannanshire and Stirling

Dumfries and Galloway

Edinburgh and the Lothians

Fife

Glasgow and Clyde Valley

Highland

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park

Perth and Kinross

Scottish Borders.

Under the National Forest Land Scheme, communities or housing bodies can apply to buy or lease areas of land that are owned by Scottish Ministers and managed by Forestry Commission Scotland, even where such land has not been declared surplus or for sale. Since it was launched in 2005, 22 areas of land (totalling 2,809 hectares) have been sold under the scheme; 12 of these sales were to local community groups, nine were sales to housing bodies and one was a sale of surplus land to a non-governmental organisation.

The following table identifies the financial year in which the 12 sales to local community groups were completed:

Number of Sales to Communities

Since the scheme was extended (in 2010) to allow communities to lease forest land for forest management purposes, three applications for community leases have been approved and details are currently being settled.

As part of the local planning process hydraulic fracturing activities should be screened to determine if Environmental Impact Assessment, as per the Environmental Impact Assessment (Scotland) Regulations, is required. If such assessment is considered to be required, the planning authority would factor the environmental information provided into its decision on the subsequent planning application, this would normally include climatic factors.

SEPA carries out a risk assessment as part of its specific obligations to evaluate risks to the water environment when assessing applications for licences under the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 (CAR). CAR licences are only issued when SEPA are satisfied that any risks to the water environment are negated or within manageable tolerances.

To date there have been no applications made to SEPA for hydraulic fracturing for the purposes of either shale gas or shale oil extraction in Scotland and SEPA is also not aware of any pre-application discussions under CAR regarding hydraulic fracturing for the purposes of shale gas or shale oil extraction.

However, there have been pre-application discussions and CAR applications for hydraulic fracturing for the purposes of coal bed methane extraction in the location of Canonbie, Dumfrieshire and the process above were followed.

There are no current plans to issue specific guidance to planning authorities on hydraulic fracturing. Scottish Planning Policy does already address the derivation of gas from shale reservoirs and identifies a range of environmental, social and economic factors that can be considered for wellheads and transmission infrastructure in areas covered by the UK Government Petroleum Exploration and Development Licences (PEDL). Scottish Planning Policy can be accessed from the Scottish Government's website https://www.gov.scot/