Chamber and committees

(a) Scottish Government received nine complaints directly though the Ministerial correspondence system. The nature of these complaints was as follows:

Four did not like the campaign materials

Three felt the money spent on the campaign could be better spent elsewhere

One complained that campaigns do not change people’s behaviour

One complained about the ‘Give Cyclists Enough Space’ advertisement

During this time Scottish Government also received five letters or emails requesting that more money be allocated to such campaigns, three of these requesting adverts aimed at irresponsible cyclist behaviour.

Cycling Scotland has received 10 complaints directly. These can be broken down as follows:

Three of these raised concerns about the overall campaign

Three complaints were about the bus back advertising

Two were specifically about the “Give Cyclists Enough Space” execution which showed an illustrated cyclist swinging an illustrated cat with the text “Give Cyclists Enough Space”

Two complaints raised concerns over the TV adverts

(b) Newhaven Communications, the campaign’s advertising agency, has not received any formal complaints.

(c) Two organisations who are not official partners contacted Cycling Scotland to highlight a complaint they had received about the “Give Cyclists Enough Space” poster. These were SSSPCA and Cats Protection League.

The SCOTS Traffic and Safety Group received four comments, two about the messaging on the bus backs and two about the overall campaign messaging.

Cycling Scotland were made aware of five complaints received by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about the lack of a helmet and road positioning in the final scene of the “Think Horse” television advert.

The ASA received a further two complaints objecting to the “Give Cyclists Enough Space” execution. None of these complaints were upheld by the ASA.

Of the supporting partner organisations:

CTC (UK) received a number of comments about the campaign

Scottish Taxi Federation received one complaint about the “Give Cyclists Enough Space” execution.

Police Scotland received one comment regarding improvements in enforcement measures

Sustrans Scotland received two letters of complaint about the overall campaign

Scottish Cycling received one complaint about the overall campaign

Lothian Buses received one complaint about the bus backs

British Horse Society received one complaint about the “Give Cyclists Enough Space” execution.

The Nice Way Code campaign was undertaken following the success of Cycling Scotland’s Give Me Cycle Space campaign, which asks drivers to watch out for children cycling to school and give them plenty of space when passing. In 2012, 85% of drivers surveyed in the target areas said the campaign would make them give children more space on the road, 58% of parents surveyed in the target areas said the campaign made them more confident about children cycling to school and across the participating schools there was an average increase in levels of cycling of 22%. The development of the Nice Way Code campaign was undertaken in order to continue this successful approach and speak to a wider range of road users to encourage mutual respect in the shared road space.

The impact of the Nice Way Code will be assessed when the evaluation is carried out.

The evaluation of the campaign will determine how successful it has been and its value for money. Cycling Scotland anticipate that the evaluation will be completed by the end of October.

The campaign was run in August and September and the following table shows

accidents involving pedal cyclists in August and September from 2010 to 2012:

The statistics for 2013 are still being collected. Provisional figures for 2013 will become available in June 2014, following the publication of Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2013.

There has been positive feedback from various cycling groups such as CTC, Sustrans, Scottish Cycling and Cycling Scotland who all supported the campaign. There has been concerns from some other cycling groups and individual cyclists who for various reasons do not like the campaign. These responses are detailed in my answer to Parliamentary Question S4W-17540 on 28 October 2014.

The development of a Mutual Respect campaign aimed at all road users was requested by respondents to the consultation with key stakeholders, undertaken by Transport Scotland as part of the refresh exercise of the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland. Therefore, the creation of the Nice Way Code campaign was as a direct result of feedback from cycling groups.

Cycling Scotland held extensive stakeholder consultations and focus groups during the creative process for the Nice Way Code. The stakeholders consulted included cycling groups, B-Spokes, Spokes and Pedal on Parliament. Stakeholders gave feedback on different creative options which included the Nice Way Code and also chose which messages they felt that the campaign should deliver through workshops.

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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The planned outcomes of the campaign were to educate all road users about the importance of mutual respect, highlighting key behaviours that would help foster better relations between different road user groups and stimulate debate about these issues. The main aim was to make the road a less intimidating place for more vulnerable users. The evaluation of the campaign is still being finalised and once completed will show to what extent these outcomes were achieved. Cycling Scotland, who developed the campaign, anticipate that this will be completed by the end of October.

In 2013-14 Orkney Islands Council is in receipt of revenue funding amounting to £3,372 per head, Shetland Islands Council is receiving £,3906 per head and the Western Isles, £3,980 per head.

The Scottish Government has been working with all key organisations in the sector including local authorities, voluntary adoption agencies and other adoption services providers to improve the adoption services in Scotland and extend the reach of voluntary adoption agencies and their capacity to meet demand including the establishment of the National Adoption Register.

We have provided funding to BAAF in Scotland, Birthlink and Adoption UK in Scotland, all of which have a charitable status, under the Unified Voluntary Sector Fund (UVSF) from 2008-09 to 2012-13. The amounts of funding and the assessment criteria for UVSF are listed in the following table.

* transitional funding for April 2013 only

Following a review of UVSF, a new funding mechanism was created under the Third Sector Early Intervention Fund (TSEIF) and Strategic Funding Partnership Funding (SFPF). The assessment criteria for these funds are listed in the following tables.

The following funding has been awarded to Adoption UK under TSEIF.

The following funding has been awarded to Birthlink and BAAF under SFPF.

In addition, the Scottish Government has provided the following grant funding to BAAF in Scotland to operate the National Adoption Register:

The Scottish Government have also provided grant funding of £10,000 in 2012-13 and £75,000 in 2013-14 to St Andrew’s Children Society to expand their adoption services in the North East of Scotland and recruit more prospective adopters in this part of Scotland.

The previously ring-fenced funding for adoption for local authorities that amounted to £2 million was rolled-up into the overall local government finance settlement with effect from 2008-09. From 1 April 2008 there is no longer a separate allocation of funding for adoption but the funding remains within the overall block grant. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities including the Scottish Government’s key strategic objectives.

The list of detailed eligibility criteria will be sent to the member directly and a copy will be placed in the Scottish Parliament library.

The release of non-native animals can have unpredictable and serious impacts on biodiversity and human health. For these reasons it is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) to release, or allow to escape, any animal outwith its native range. The eagle owl is outwith its native range in Scotland.

The Scottish Government believes that full legal protection for brown hares is unlikely to reverse the declines that the species has experienced. Hares are shot both as game and because of the damage they can cause to crops. There is evidence that even though spring shoots may reduce the population by 50% or more, there is little, or no, apparent long term effect on population levels. The main issues affecting this species are changes in farming practices and in particular the loss of mixed habitats.