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The information requested at point (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) could only be obtained at disproportionate costs.

The recently launched Active Travel campaign aims to encourage the Scottish public to reduce the number of short journeys made by car. The campaign raises awareness of the benefits of walking and cycling in terms of wellbeing, environment and financial cost.

The Scottish Government continually looks for ways to minimise the use of cars for official journeys and Ministers take their responsibility to travel sustainably very seriously and aim to use more sustainable forms of transport whenever possible.

Where practicable, Ministers are encouraged to use public transport or walk to their engagements.

You may be interested to know that all Ministerial journeys by Car and public transport are published on the Scottish Government Website.

Up to the end of April this year, over 140,000 deposits with a total value of £89 million had been lodged with one of the three approved tenancy deposit schemes. Of these, more than 25,000 deposits had been submitted directly by landlords. Information on the number of landlords registered and deposits lodged with the schemes, as at the deadline of 15 May is not yet available.

Comparison with the number of properties private landlords have registered with local authorities suggests that some landlords still need to lodge deposits.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with the scheme providers and other stakeholders to encourage compliance with the law in this area.

The Scottish Government continues to work with the scheme providers and other stakeholders such as Citizens Advice Scotland and Shelter Scotland to encourage compliance with the law.

The Scottish Government recently introduced the Tenant Information Pack which provides key information for tenants and landlords in an easy to read format. From May 1st, landlords have a legal duty to provide the Tenant Information Pack to new tenants. The pack includes information on tenants’ rights with regards to their deposit being protected in a Tenancy Deposit Scheme.

The launch of the pack is supported by a new website: rentingscotland.org, which offers practical renting guides for tenants and landlords in Scotland’s private rented sector. Renting Scotland is jointly funded by the Scottish Government and Shelter Scotland. The website is an industry-wide information hub for both tenants and landlords in the private rented sector in Scotland.

Private landlords have a duty to protect tenants’ deposits with one of the three approved tenancy deposit schemes. If they fail to do so the tenant may apply to a sheriff to enforce the law. The court may order the imposition of a financial penalty of up to three times the deposit on a landlord. In addition, local authorities may take such a breach of housing law into account when considering the fit and proper test for landlord registration and licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation.

Not all landlords take deposits from tenants. In addition, letting agents acting on behalf of landlords will have lodged a proportion of the deposits now with one of the three approved tenancy deposit schemes. As such, we cannot confirm what percentage of all landlords have lodged eligible deposits.

Up to the end of April 2013, over 140,000 deposits with a total value of £89 million had been lodged with one of the three approved tenancy deposit schemes. These are the most up to date figures available.

Comparison with the number of properties private landlords have registered with local authorities suggests that some landlords still need to lodge deposits.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with the scheme providers and other stakeholders to encourage compliance with the law in this area.

The Still Hungry for Success working group met for the first time on 14 March 2013 and again on 8 May 2013

The following table shows working group membership and attendance

At the first meeting the group discussed progress since Hungry for Success launched in 2003, existing successes, challenges and barriers in relation to school food provision and education.

At the second meeting, following informal consultation by group members with their stakeholder groups, discussion centred on the potential structure and scope of the guidance document.

The working group plan to meet again on 5 June, 14 August and 5 September.

A report commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage in 2006 indicated that a minimum of 24,529 mountain hares are controlled annually (mainly by shooting) on Scottish estates. This represents 7% of the 1995 published Scottish population estimate of 350,000. However, the population estimate is subject to error, and so accounting for this uncertainty, the reported level of cull would lie in the range of 3.5 to 14% of the total population. Scottish Natural Heritage are planning to undertake further studies to determine the population level either later in the current year or in the next financial year.

The National Gamebag Census data for mountain hare compiled by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust shows no significant trend in the data between 1961 and 2009, despite marked cyclical fluctuations which are known to exist in around half of mountain hare populations.

The Scottish government has not issued guidance on the sustainable culling of the mountain hare as the only published information on the population level of the species is an estimate of 350,000 which dates from 1995 and is subject to a 50% margin of error. Further studies are therefore required to determine the population level and to provide a more accurate assessment of the number of mountain hares in Scotland; and Scottish Natural Heritage are planning to carry these out either later in the current or in the next financial year.

There is no current evidence of non-compliance with the mountain hare closed season. To date, there have, therefore, been no prosecutions for non-compliance, and there have been 10 licence applications to date for shooting hares during the closed season.

A report commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage in 2006 on the control of mountain hares on Scottish estates, indicated that 73% of mountain hares that were controlled (24 529 in total that year) were killed by being shot. Among those that were shot, 32% of mountain hares were shot for the purposes of tick control to prevent the spread of disease. A further 41% were shot for sporting purposes through a combination of informal and commercial shooting. The remaining 27% were snared for the purposes of tick control, or for the protection of crops, or forests.