Chamber and committees

The St Kilda World Heritage Site is owned and managed by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS). The Management Plan for the St Kilda WHS (World Heritage Site) includes a contingency plan for this type of emergency and NTS sent staff to the island to initiate a programme to find and eliminate any rats which may have escaped from the Spinningdale. They remained on the islands for three days but detected no trace of rats. I understand that remains the position as the MoD staff resident on St Kilda are maintaining a watch for evidence of rats. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) continues to monitor the situation closely.

A derogation to claimforage against land below the mean high water spring tide level exists for the island of North Ronaldsay. This is the onlyarea within Orkney and Shetland that is permitted to claim within the inter-tidalzone. The derogation was granted due to the unique foraging abilities of the nativeNorth Ronaldsay sheep, a breed that has genetically evolved over many centuriesto the point where they now survive almost entirely on seaweed.

The Scottish Governmenthas not made any representations to the UK Government concerning the sovereigntyof Rockall nor its 12nm territorial sea, both of which constitute recognised partsof Scotland.

The Scottish Government has made representations to the UK Governmentconcerning the conduct of negotiations with neighbouring coastal States over theagreement of boundaries to the UK’s claim foran Exclusive Economic Zone including the area extending 200nm from the St Kildabaseline to seas beyond Rockall and its adjacent sea area. Following these representations,the negotiating aims and conduct, including the participation of the Scottish Government,have been agreed with the Foreign andCommonwealth Office.

With regard to energyissues, while again we have not made any specific representations regarding Rockall,we have made clear, as part of the national conversation, that we would wish toundertake discussions with the UK Governmentregarding options for the transfer of responsibility of oil and gas resources tothe Scottish Government in the long-term.

I am encouraged by the progressthat has been made in recent times and there is a growing confidence that the NHSWestern Isles Health Board will achieve in-year financial balance for 2007-08.

Once this key priority of in-yearbalance is delivered and sustained the issue of the cumulative deficit will be broughtinto focus. In principle it is important that debts are cleared in the places theyarise.

The general approach in theserare situations is to provide brokerage and ensure repayment over time. However,this will be fully considered in due course.

For a definition of both eligibleforage areas and sea-girt land I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-6695on 29 November 2007. So far as we are aware there are no differences in thetreatment of sea-girt land as between Western Isles and Orkney and Shetland forthe purposes of consideration under the Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme. Allanswers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website,the search facility for which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Local authorities, as strategichousing bodies are required to produce Local Housing Strategies which set out plansto address housing needs in their areas.

In 2007 local authorities werespecifically asked to consider, when updating their Local Housing Strategies, howthey could take action on empty homes to help tackle housing need anywhere in theirareas. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar intendsto commission research into empty homes in the Western Isles.

The Western Isles Local HousingStrategy 2004-09 contains an objective to bring back into use 15 empty homes toprovide affordable accommodation in the Greater Stornoway area by 2009. The Strategyalso contains an objective to support the inward migration of at least 30 householdson average a year.

I am pleased to announce todaythat, following our review, the Scottish Government will now seek the agreementof the European Commission for continuation of the Air Discount Scheme (ADS) from1 April 2008 for another three years at the existing discount rate.

The ADS gives residents of Orkney,Shetland, the Western Isles, Islay, Jura, Caithness and North West Sutherland a 40% discount on the priceof core air fares.

An analysis conducted on ourbehalf by Halcrow shows that there have been significant increases in patronageon some ADS-related services, and significant increases in the frequency and capacityof these services since the launch of the scheme in May 2006. The analysis has alsoidentified large reductions in average journey times for ADS members, as well asbroad satisfaction with the scheme’s administration. From the analysis it is clearthat the scheme has performed very effectively and ministers have concluded thatit should continue.

Halcrow’s analysis accords withour own statistical and other evidence built up since May 2006. ADS membership levelsare in general very high and well over 200,000 discounted tickets have been purchasedsince the scheme began. Over the next three years, we believe that the scheme willmake further progress and that increasing numbers of residents in the Highlands andIslands will benefit. We will continue to monitor the ADS’s performance during thattime to ensure that the scheme continues to fulfil its key aims.

Information onsmall businesses in the form requested is not held centrally. However,information on the number and rateable value of non-domestic properties whichmay be eligible for relief under the Small Business Bonus scheme is availablefor the local authority area concerned on the Scottish Assessors Portal www.saa.gov.uk. This information is shown asfollows:

Number of Properties	Rateable Value of Property
	Up to £8,000	£8,001-£10,000	£10,001-£15,000	Total up to £15,000
Western Isles/ Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	1,733	62	94	1,889

Notes:

(i)The rateable value ranges shown in the table correspond to those on page 12 of the Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007.

(ii)The table shows the number of non-domestic properties (excluding zero-ratedsubjects) with rateable values of up to £15,000 in the Comhairle nan EileanSiar local authority area, which is co-terminous with the boundaries of theWestern Isles parliamentary constituency. 

(iii)The number of eligible businesses will be lower than the number of non-domesticproperties in each area, because some businesses have more than one property.This may affect eligibility for relief under the Small Business Bonus Scheme,which will depend on:

thecombined rateable value of all properties in Scotland which a business owns, leases or isotherwise entitled to occupy;

whetherthe property is eligible for one of the existing rates relief schemes, and

thelevel of other public sector assistance received by the business.

The ScottishGovernment has formally withdrawn from the UK Heritage Protection Bill and willbe legislating in the Scottish Parliament, probably as part of a ScottishMarine Bill. We will continue to keep in touch with the UK Government so thatthe future legislation fits well with any provisions in the rest of the UK.

The General RegisterOffice for Scotland (which is responsible for the Scottish census) included a questionabout the Scots language in a census test last spring but a final decision has notbeen taken. Under current plans, a formal proposal on the topics to be includedin the 2011 census will be presented to Parliament in autumn 2008 and Parliament’sfinal approval to the census questions will be sought early in 2010.