Chamber and committees

The total number of Education Scotland inspections carried out each academic year for the last five years for Dumfries and Galloway :

Inspection Figures for Academic Years August 2012 to July 2017

*includesEarly Learning and Childcare settings, and Primary, Secondary, All through, Independent and Special schools.

All figures include short model inspections resulting in QI evaluations and 'try out' inspections not resulting in QI evaluations.

Any homeowner who claims that his or her property is damaged by overflow from defective sewerage and road drainage systems has to be able to demonstrate liability on the part of Scottish Water or the relevant roads authority on account of a breach of a common law or statutory duty on the part of that authority.

As part of the Planning Review, we established a pilot programme of Simplified Planning Zones, funding 3 housing pilot projects which will support innovative housing delivery, including self and custom build. The pilots include projects on an island context, and in rural locations, including looking at how a plot passport approach can simplify planning for those wanting to build a new home in rural areas.

The following Ministers have met with Dumfries and Galloway Council in the last 12 months: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills; Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work; Cabinet Secretary for Justice; Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Connectivity; Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy; Minister for Local Government and Housing.

Our investment through the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme has been a major success, extending fibre broadband access to over 800,000 premises across Scotland. This includes 25,000 premises in the constituency of Dumfriesshire, with over 22,000 of these capable of accessing speeds of 24Mbps and above.

The programme was never intended to deliver 100% coverage or to upgrade every BT exchange, but to maximise coverage with the funding available. As a result, some areas will miss out and, unfortunately, the Marrburn exchange is within one of those areas.

The Scottish Government is committed to building on the success of the DSSB programme by extending superfast access to 100% of premises by 2021. The Marrburn exchange will be included in the intervention area for the R100 programme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-12455 on
16 November 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

This is an operational matter for Police Scotland. Information about Police Scotland's Gaelic Language Plan is available on the Police Scotland website: http://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/police-scotland/strategic-planning/gaelic-language-plan

We have just concluded a consultation on proposals to replace the current guarantee period of 2 years for shallow excavations, and 3 years for deep excavations, with a single guarantee period of 6 years regardless of the depth of excavation. The consultation closed on 12 November 2017. We are currently analysing responses to the consultation and will carefully consider the views given. We will publish that analysis and our response outlining next steps as soon as we can.

£206k has been spent on Ground Investigation work on the A76 at Enterkinfoot. This figures includes:

• Geotechnical Statement of Intent including Desk Study

• Design of Ground Investigation

• Compilation of tender documents

• Ground Investigation, laboratory tests and factual reporting

• Geotechnical Interpretative Report

16,877 pupils in publicly funded primary, secondary and special schools were educated in a different local authority to their home local authority. This data has been published in the pupil census supplementary data 2016:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/dspupcensus/dspupcensus16