Chamber and committees

Both Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) and Forest Enterprise Scotland (FES) treat all incidents and accidents very seriously and therefore the details in this response are not restricted to those required under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) cases.

An accident is an event that results in injury or ill health whilst a H&S incident can fall into a range of categories including:

• Near miss –that has the potential to cause injury or ill health but did not;

• Undesired circumstance – a set of conditions or circumstances that have the potential to cause injury or ill health;

• Damage or loss to property, plant, materials or the environment; and

• Dangerous occurrence: one of a number of specific, reportable adverse events, as defined in the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR).

In addition, health and safety breaches associated with the delivery of contracts are subject to a Red, Amber, Green (RAG) rating as part of FES’s and FCS’s management of contracts.

The following definitions are used for each category:

RED Condition: Unsafe acts or conditions that are immediately life-threatening or imminently damaging to the environment and place the contract in a RED condition for health and safety.

AMBER Condition: Unsafe acts or conditions that are potentially life- threatening not meeting an industry safety standard, or potentially damaging to the environment place a contract in an Amber condition for health and safety.

GREEN Condition: Safety Considerations, industry standards and environmental protection measures are good.

Currently, those responsible for health and safety breaches are not required to disclose this information in future procurement exercises. This is because FES and FCS are restricted on the information that they can assess within the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) that would lead to a bidder being excluded.

FES and FCS do seek information on the health and safety processes of bidders and an evaluation of these processes is undertaken. However unless a bidder has had a prior contract terminated in respect of a breach of terms and conditions (health and safety or otherwise), or if a health and safety breach has resulted in a criminal conviction; it would be very difficult for FES or FCS to exclude the bidder. Specifically, when assessing a bidder’s suitability, a bidder could not be ‘failed’ on the sole basis of it having received a prior health & safety enforcement notice.

Table 1: Number of Incidents and Accidents in Forest Enterprise Scotland between January and March 2017

 Table 2: Number Health and Safety breaches in Forest Commission

 Conservancies between January and March 2017 

Only two Conservancies have any date for this specific time period.

There are significant differences in the legislation and regulation underpinning the telecoms sectors and those governing other utilities making it difficult to mirror activity across all, not least in that the Electronic Communications Code, the legislation that governs the relationship between telecoms operators and landowners, is a reserved matter.

A key driver for the reform of the Code was to make it easier to deploy telecoms infrastructure. We are, however, continuing to engage directly with telecoms suppliers to understand their handling of wayleaves and with the UK Government and Ofcom, to ensure any barriers to telecoms deployment in Scotland are understood and acted upon.

We have committed £600m to the initial Reaching 100% procurement. This procurement is focused on our more rural areas, excluding urban premises and targeting investment where it is needed most. We also plan to make the delivery of new backhaul in rural locations a requirement of the North lot.

In parallel, we are working to create an environment that stimulates commercial investment in urban areas, negating the need for public sector intervention. Recent announcements by BT, Virgin Media and CityFibre suggest that this approach is working. We are keeping this under review and will be able to intervene before 2021 should that commercial investment in urban areas not materialise.

The legislation and regulation of telecommunications are reserved matters and as such, it is for the UK Government, with Ofcom, to ensure that barriers to private investment are understood and removed. We are continuing to engage directly with telecoms suppliers and local authorities on a regular basis to understand issues and with the UK Government and Ofcom, to ensure any barriers to telecoms deployment in Scotland are understood and acted upon. We are, nevertheless, using levers available to us where possible, such as planning and non-domestic business rates.

£600 million to the first phase of the Reaching 100% (R100) programme that will help deliver that objective. This stands in contrast to the UK Government’s plans for a Universal Service Obligation for broadband, which is to be set at just 10Mbps.

We know that people living in rural areas can experience social isolation and loneliness for a number of reasons. We commissioned a prevalence study, which was undertaken by NHS Health Scotland at the outset of our work on social isolation and loneliness which told us that 11% of adults in Scotland feel lonely often and 38% feel lonely sometimes. We cannot disaggregate this to provide a clearer indication of loneliness in rural areas. However, we are taking forward work to develop ways of measuring and monitoring loneliness and social isolation across Scotland, and our draft strategy to tackle social isolation and loneliness set out a performance framework which will be developed further.

We recognise that people who live in rural areas may be at particular risk of becoming socially isolated or lonely for a number of reasons. We are already taking steps, for example work to improve our public transport system through our new Transport Bill, as well as developing the National Rural Mental Health Forum to reflect the unique challenges presented by rural isolation. Our Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund (2016-17) also included support for projects in rural areas. As part of our consultation on a draft strategy to tackle social isolation and loneliness, we will hold events in rural and island communities so that people can have their say on the issues that matter to them.