Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for ��˿�� to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-14042

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made or plans of levels of loneliness and social isolation in rural areas.

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.

Question reference: S5W-14043

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 5 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how it is addressing loneliness and social isolation in rural areas.

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.

Question reference: S5W-13962

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 1 February 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13566 by Kevin Stewart on 10 January 2018, whether registered social landlords can impose factoring fees on private householders in a shared mixed private/tenanted block for (a) the provision of bad debt write-offs, (b) marketing and (c) office rent, rates or utilities and, if so, under what legislation.

It may be possible for a Registered Social Landlord to charge private homeowners factoring fees in a tenement which has mixed tenure.

There are several ways in which a factor can be appointed to act.

There may be provision in the title deeds about a property factor and the powers and duties of any such factor. It is also possible that a factor may have been appointed under procedures laid down in the title deeds or the Tenement Management Scheme contained in schedule 1 of the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004. The Tenement Management Scheme is a default scheme which makes provision for majority decisions by owners in a number of areas when the title deeds are silent or uncertain, including in relation to the appointment of a property manager.

The Property Factors Scotland (Scotland) Act 2011 provides a statutory framework to protect homeowners who receive the services of a property factor. Property factors, including Registered Social Landlords who deliver factoring services to homeowners, must be registered with the Scottish Ministers and comply with a statutory Code of Conduct.

The Code of Conduct requires a property factor, in a written statement of service provided to owners, to set out a statement of the basis of any authority it has to act on behalf of all homeowners in the group. The written statement of service should also include information on how factoring charges are identified, apportioned and recovered from homeowners.

The Code of Conduct requires a property factor to have a clear written complaints resolution procedure. Homeowners who have complaints about the service they are receiving from a property factor may apply to the First-Tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) for redress.

Homeowners can search the Property Factors Register to check whether their factor is registered. Further information about the Property Factor Register, the Code of Conduct for Property Factors, and the First-Tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber) can be found at:

Question reference: S5W-13966

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 26 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what plans are in place (a) nationally and (b) in the NHS Dumfries and Galloway area for improving the health care options available to people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).

Question reference: S5F-01941

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 January 2018

To ask the First Minister what support the Scottish Government is providing to the inshore fishing industry.

Question reference: S5W-13566

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 10 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether registered social landlords can issue factoring policy charges to tenants for (a) the provision of bad debt write-offs, (b) marketing and (c) office rent, rates or utilities and, if so, under what legislation.

Question reference: S5O-01611

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport will next visit Stranraer.

Question reference: S5O-01658

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 January 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to promote Galloway's natural features to attract tourists.

Question reference: S5W-13124

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many hen harrier nests there were on (a) RSPB and (b) non-RSPB reserves in each of the last five years, and what information it has regarding how many failed to have any chicks fledge, broken down by the reason for the failures.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on hen harrier nests broken down by nature reserves on which the nests are located, or on reasons for nest failure.

The Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme (SRMS) and RSPB have provided the data in Table 1 for RSPB reserves. The data is from 2011-2015. Data for 2016 will be available in early 2018.

Table 1

Year	No of pairs monitored	Successful	Failed/Outcome unknown
2011	42	13	29
2012	37	15	22
2013	37	12	25
2014	37	13	24
2015	43	15	28

Around 80% of the records in Table 1 are from RSPB Orkney reserves. The Orkney harrier population is well known for high levels of polygyny with males often breeding with 2 or 3 females. Most of these additional females either fail or produce very few young, as normally males struggle to feed more than one female and brood. This affects the failure rate overall and the proportion of successful nesting attempts is higher on non-Orkney RSPB reserves compared to Orkney reserves.

Table 2 provides data on breeding hen harriers across Scotland from the SRMS. It does not include the data included in Table 1.

Table 2

Year	No of pairs monitored	Successful	Failed/Outcome unknown
2011	204	98	106
2012	180	92	88
2013	210	97	113
2014	256	164	92
2015	233	105	128

The SRMS annual report for 2015 includes an article on Patterns of Breeding and Causes of Failure in 2015 (see ). It shows the regional variation in both the success/failure rates and stage of nesting attempt when failure occurred for hen harriers, as well as providing a summary of causes of failure for all species reported in 2015. It highlights the difficulty in accurately assigning causes of failure, with the majority of failures being in the unknown reason category.

Question reference: S5W-12970

Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what facilities are available to allow motorists who are experiencing tiredness while driving on motorways to rest.