Chamber and committees

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) defines sub-prime mortgages as those targeted at consumers with impaired or low credit ratings who may find it difficult to obtain finance from traditional sources.

Data are available for those with impaired credit ratings but not for those with low credit ratings. For Scotland as a whole, in the period April 2005 to June 2008, the FSA found that 21,130 mortgages arranged in Scotland were in cases where the main, second or other borrower had an impaired credit history. This represents 3.4% of the total number of mortgages (630,334) issued in Scotland over this period.

Similar figures have been calculated for local authority areas. The proportion of mortgages to borrowers with impaired credit histories ranges from 1.4% (in Shetland) to 4.4% (in North Lanarkshire).

Local Authority	Not Impaired	Impaired Credit History	Total	Impaired (as % of Total)
Aberdeen City	26,441	712	27,153	2.6%
Aberdeenshire	25,361	686	26,047	2.6%
Angus	11,838	377	12,215	3.1%
Argyll and Bute	10,999	395	11,394	3.5%
Clackmannanshire	6,405	239	6,644	3.6%
Dumfries and Galloway	12,307	410	12,717	3.2%
Dundee City	16,477	526	17,002	3.1%
East Ayrshire	13,549	615	14,163	4.3%
East Dunbartonshire	10,882	394	11,276	3.5%
East Lothian	12,209	340	12,549	2.7%
East Renfrewshire	9,112	330	9,441	3.5%
City of Edinburgh	65,991	1,840	67,831	2.7%
Eilean Siar	1,674	35	1,709	2.0%
Falkirk	19,246	697	19,943	3.5%
Fife	44,151	1,743	45,894	3.8%
Glasgow City	74,447	2,694	77,141	3.5%
Highland	22,342	623	22,965	2.7%
Inverclyde	9,020	323	9,343	3.5%
Midlothian	9,791	273	10,064	2.7%
Moray	9,345	260	9,605	2.7%
North Ayrshire	16,184	732	16,916	4.3%
North Lanarkshire	39,309	1,791	41,101	4.4%
Orkney Islands	1,419	35	1,454	2.4%
Perth and Kinross	14,616	423	15,039	2.8%
Renfrewshire	19,360	693	20,053	3.5%
Scottish Borders	13,134	394	13,528	2.9%
Shetland	1,508	22	1,530	1.4%
South Ayrshire	13,216	600	13,816	4.3%
South Lanarkshire	36,685	1,563	38,248	4.1%
Stirling	10,592	393	10,985	3.6%
West Dunbartonshire	10,980	397	11,378	3.5%
West Lothian	20,613	577	21,190	2.7%
Scotland	609,204	21,130	630,334	3.4%

Source: FSA Product Sales Data, available at postcode area level for number of regulated mortgages (including remortgages) advanced on properties in Scotland from April 2005 to June 2008. Approximate mapping to local authority level done by Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government would discourage borrowers from taking on unsustainable mortgage commitments and to seek help from their lender if they are having trouble repaying their mortgage.

The most significant of our devolved powers are those relating to housing, and the provision of information and advice.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-16485 on 1 October 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk./webapp/wa.search.

We provide extensive support for money (debt) advice: through the local government settlement; by providing training and consultancy to help advisors deal with more complex cases; by helping fund National Debtline (a UK service) to ensure that advisors are aware of differences between Scotland and the rest of the UK, in particular, the legal side of debt problems (diligence and sequestration), and by funding Citizens Advice Direct, which provides advice by telephone and email rather than the traditional face-to-face model of bureaux, to progressively increase its coverage from its beginnings in Glasgow to the whole of Scotland.

We have announced a specific package of support for home owners in difficulty.

This information is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally.

The management of speed is a primary consideration of road authorities, police forces, and Safety Camera Partnerships. Under the Scottish Safety Camera Programme, two mobile camera sites have been established on the A78. One is sited on Inverkip Road, Greenock the other on Main Road, Fairlie. Since these sites were established, the average traffic speed at the camera sites has fallen to 27mph and 32mph respectively.

In addition to the deployment of safety cameras, the police regularly patrol the A78 and enforce a wide range of road traffic legislation including those laws relating to speeding.

Transport Scotland is trialling various types of 30mph reminder vehicle activated signs within villages as part of its speed management strategy. On the A78, villages included in the trial are Skelmorlie and Seamill. Once the most effective and reliable system has been established this initiative will be extended, where appropriate, to other villages. These signs should begin to be installed from 2009.

In partnership with the Scottish Chambers of Commerce and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise supports Business Mentoring Scotland (BMS). The latest phase of BMS was launched on 20 August 2008. It aims to advise around 1,200 businesses per annum, across Scotland, including tourism-related businesses. This service provides three levels of support:

Online information and registration facilities

A series of group mentoring meetings across the network of local chambers to provide access to a wider pool of contacts and business knowledge and opportunities

One-to-one mentoring

Twenty tourism businesses have been supported by BMS so far this year. One hundred and sixteen tourism businesses were supported in 2007. Currently, 25 of the mentors have experience in tourism.

The effectiveness of the A77 average speed camera system will be fully assessed once three full years of data is available. The potential to introduce more average speed cameras will be informed by this assessment towards the end of 2008, once accident data is available for the three full years since implementation.

There are currently no proposals to signalise existing junctions or construct roundabouts on the A78 trunk road at Inverkip.