Chamber and committees

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.

The Scottish Government does not hold specific data on beef imports from Canada.

Beef imports from Canada would have to enter the EU through a Border Inspection Post (BIP) and Scotland does not have any BIPs for beef. Any beef imports from Canada would need to enter the UK through a BIP in England.

The Scottish Government monitors the progress of the 100,000 hectares target of new woodland during the course of each year.

Monitoring is undertaken at two stages: at the ‘woodland creation approval’ stage which is when woodland creation applications become contracts and also at the ‘woodland creation paid’ stage which is when grant claims are paid for the planting.

The area of planting achieved each year is published as part of the national statistics on forestry produced by the Forestry Commission.

Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) provides grant support through the Scottish Rural Development Programme to fund the restoration of priority open ground habitats. FCS administers a habitat and species grant which funds, for example, works to remove woodland on peatland sites. FCS also provides funding for research and publishes guidance on the restoration of priority open ground habitats.

The budget for this grant is approximately £0.5 million per year and is available nationally. Since 2009, a large proportion has been awarded to projects associated with the Caithness and Sutherland Special Area of Conservation/Special Protection Area, using Scottish Rural Development Programme funding or via FCS approving an unconditional felling license. This has resulted in 1,060 hectares of previously afforested land being cleared or approved for clearance. In addition over the last 15 years 2,500 hectares of forest have been cleared, and a further 1,000 hectares are in the planning stages for approval.

On the National Forest Estate, Forest Enterprise Scotland is completing a survey of all the open habitat and this is 63% complete. To date 84,633 hectares of open UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UKBAP) priority habitats have been identified out of 133,000 hectares surveyed. Alongside the ongoing survey work, since 2000 Forest Enterprise Scotland has undertaken almost 3,000 hectares of open UKBAP priority habitat restoration to open ground. Significant progress has been made over the last year with more than 1,000 hectares of peatland habitat being restored with funding from the Scottish Natural Heritage Peatland Action Fund.

In addition, just over 9,000 hectares of habitat condition improvement work has been undertaken on twenty open UKBAP priority habitats. This work has involved the introduction of conservation grazing regimes, particularly on upland heathland, as well as the removal of tree regeneration from peatland areas combined with drain blocking.

Since 2005 details of all land bought and sold by Forestry Commission Scotland has been made available via their website and the link to this information is as follows:

http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/managing/work-on-scotlands-national-forest-estate/land-and-building-management/re-positioning-programme

The website provides details of the type of land sold categorised as either forest, buildings, other or sale to communities/NGOs under the National Forest Land Scheme, the forest district, property name, size and date of sale. Forest Commission Scotland does not routinely record the composition of how much native woodland the disposals contain.