Chamber and committees

The data held centrally on recorded crime is based on an aggregate count of crimes and offences recorded and cleared up by the police. Dog thefts would be recorded in the statistics as a crime of theft, however it is not possible to separately identify the number of thefts which related specifically to dogs.

Action to tackle crime is the responsibility of Police Scotland; however, the Scottish Government can and will help to ensure that stolen dogs can be more easily returned to their rightful owners.

We have long recommended in our Code of Practice for the Welfare of Dogs that microchipping is an effective method of identifying animals that can help re-unite dogs with owners where the dogs have been lost or stolen.

On 4 March 2015 I announced that microchipping of all dogs will be made mandatory in Scotland from April 2016, after it was overwhelmingly backed in a public consultation.

The Scottish Government and its public and private sector partners are investing over £410 million in our Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme (DSSB) which, alongside commercial deployment by BT and other operators, will deliver fibre broadband access to 95% of premises in Scotland by 2017-18.

Most of the funding for this programme is not allocated to specific local authority areas, but to the national programme as a whole. In addition to the national funding, 14 local authorities provided supplementary funding to maximise coverage in their own areas. In Lothian, these local authorities are Midlothian, which contributed an additional £0.5 million, and West Lothian which contributed an additional £2.5 million.

All local authorities will be upgraded within the life of the DSSB programme. This table shows the percentage of premises in the three Lothian local authorities expected to have access to fibre broadband at the conclusion of the DSSB programme, compared with commercial deployment alone.

We have also established Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) – a £7.5 million initiative that is supporting the development of community-led schemes in those areas that are unlikely to have a superfast solution delivered commercially, or by the DSSB programme.

CBS is engaged with communities in East Lothian (Humbie, Lammermuir, East and West Salton, Bolton and Haddington), and has awarded a total of £169,000 to date. CBS is also working with the community of Cousland in Midlothian and has awarded £5,000 to date.

The Scottish Government has not set a specific target in relation to initiation on to insulin pump therapy. However, we expect insulin pumps to be made available as soon as possible after a clinical decision is made to provide one, taking account of individual patient circumstances and clinical considerations.

Part 7 of the Community Empowerment Bill will place new duties on local authorities which will significantly increase access to allotments for people throughout Scotland, including those living in areas of multiple deprivation.

The Scottish Government and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) have supported a small number of community growing projects including allotments by providing grants to local community groups across Scotland over recent years. These community groups have been from across Scotland, including areas of multiple deprivation.

As part of its work to mitigate the health impacts of welfare reform, the Scottish Government is providing funding to support a number of projects in NHS Tayside for 2014-15. One of the projects brings together a small group of volunteers who are in recovery from drug and/or mental health issues, to develop a community garden. The project is supported by a community practice nurse and by Dundee City Council who have provided space for the allotment along with an allotment officer to help oversee the project.

SNH’s grants to community groups for community growing projects including allotments have included two for allotment projects within a Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) area; Dalbeattie Allotment Association 2008 and Calder community 2013

SNH’s new external funding priorities mean that the focus of future funding is on priority groups, including communities from SIMD areas.

Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) have worked with Greenspace Scotland to develop a community information sheet on how groups can establish allotments on the land it manages, in addition to the two existing allotment projects on FCS managed land.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has provided support funding to Greenspace Scotland for Our Growing Communities publication (2013). This was a pack that looked at a wide range of community initiatives and locations. One of which was allotments.

The 2011 Greenspace Scotland survey http://greenspacescotland.org.uk/1greenspace-survey-2011.aspx)

This research was undertaken among a representative sample of people living in urban areas in Scotland. Key findings include

32% of people living in urban areas grow fruit and vegetables; this proportion drops to 14% among those living in the 15% most deprived areas.

Among those growing fruit and vegetables, 87% grow it in their garden and 5% in an allotment.

Among those who do not grow fruit and vegetables, 26% of all respondents and 27% of those living in the 15% most deprived areas said they would like to.

Among those who do not currently grow fruit and vegetables but said they would like to, the main obstacles were: ‘no garden’ (mentioned by 39%), ‘lack of time’ (35%), ‘don’t know how to’ (5%) and ‘can’t get an allotment/none nearby/waiting list’ (4%).

SNH have also provided funding to Scottish Allotments and Gardens Society for the development of the following publications: Allotment Design Guide 2012; Audit and Good Practice Case Studies of Allotment Sites in Scotland 2007; and Finding Scotland’s Allotments 2007.

In 2008, Scottish Natural Heritage undertook research on access to greenspace, which included an analysis of the population within each decile of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation that has access to an allotment site within a 600 meters (10 minute walk) buffer.

The Scottish Government had indicated that following enactment of Part 7 of the Community Empowerment Bill it intends to develop with key stakeholders a national strategy for food growing involving allotment and community growing interests. That piece of work will include consideration of future research needs.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

However, you may find the statistics at the attached link useful information. These relate to the UK Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI):

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/renewable-heat-incentive-renewable-heat-premium-payment-statistics

Within this link:

Table 1.6 - shows the breakdown of non-domestic RHI accreditation by local authority (this is not technology specific).

Table 2.10 - shows the breakdown of domestic RHI accreditations by local authority (this is not technology specific).

Table 2.7 - shows the domestic RHI accreditations split by technology in Scotland for both on and off-grid.

The Scottish Government’s home renewable loans scheme provides interest free loans to householders of up to £10,000 (max of up to 75% of the total cost) for owner-occupiers in Scotland who wish to install a domestic renewable system or up to £5,000 (max 100% of the costs) of connecting to a district heating scheme.

To date there has been 275 air source heat pump applications supported through the home renewable loans scheme.

Prior to this scheme the Scottish Government has supported the installation of air source heat pumps through the Energy Saving Scotland home renewables grant.