Seòmar agus comataidhean

Ministerial visits between May 2016 – April 2017:

Aberdeen Central: 25

Aberdeen Donside: 12

Aberdeen South and North Kincardine: 3

Aberdeenshire East: 5

Aberdeenshire West: 2

Airdrie and Shots: 2

Almond Valley: 13

Angus North and Mearns: 7

Angus South: 1

Argyll and Bute: 12

Ayr: 4

Banffshire and Buchan Coast: 2

Caithness, Sutherland and Ross: 5

Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley: 10

Clackmannanshire and Dunblane: 11

Clydebank and Milngavie: 2

Clydesdale: 3

Coatbridge and Chryston: 8

Cowdenbeath: 3

Cumbernauld and Kilsyth: 6

Cunninghame North: 5

Cunninghame South: 4

Dumbarton: 4

Dumfriesshire: 5

Dundee City East: 9

Dundee City West: 23

Dunfermline: 8

East Kilbride: 6

East Lothian: 5

Eastwood: 1

Edinburgh Central: 85

Edinburgh Eastern: 16

Edinburgh Northern and Leith: 30

Edinburgh Pentlands: 15

Edinburgh Southern: 11

Edinburgh Western: 19

Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire: 6

Falkirk East: 5

Falkirk West: 11

Galloway and West Dumfries: 7

Glasgow Anniesland: 3

Glasgow Cathcart: 8

Glasgow Kelvin: 53

Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn: 19

Glasgow Pollok: 14

Glasgow Provan: 7

Glasgow Shettleston: 21

Glasgow Southside: 31

Greenock and Inverclyde: 3

Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse: 6

Inverness and Nairn: 29

Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley: 11

Kirkcaldy: 8

Linlithgow: 4

Mid Fife and Glenrothes: 6

Midlothian North and Musselburgh: 15

Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale: 13

Moray: 7

Motherwell and Wishaw: 3

Na h-Eileanan an Iar: 26

North East Fife: 3

Orkney Islands: 6

Paisley: 5

Perthshire North: 8

Perthshire South and Kinross-shire: 14

Renfrewshire North and West: 7

Renfrewshire South: 2

Rutherglen: 5

Shetland Islands: 6

Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch: 17

Stirling: 7

Strathkelvin and Bearsden: 6

Uddingston and Bellshill: 10

The Scottish Government is committed to helping communities across Scotland realise their growth ambitions, including Langholm. As part of this commitment, I held a roundtable in Langholm that drew together community and business representatives, local politicians, and key public sector agencies to discuss the community's ambitions for future growth in their town.

The actions taken forward from that meeting include:

• Additional information on the Community Empowerment Act 2015 circulated to attendees by email on the 24 February;
• An engagement event for local businesses was hosted by Dumfries & Galloway Council on 19 April following the roundtable’s request for more information on potential public section businesses support; and
• Further information provided to the Langholm Initiative on the A7 improvements and an explanation of how decisions are taken on trunk road signage and the potential for local signage.

Those attending the meeting also committed to taking forward work to set out their agreed vision for economic growth and share it with the Scottish Government. I agreed that once shared we would explore how we could support the community in delivering that vision.

We are also taking forward our commitment to establish a new vehicle to meet the enterprise and skills needs of the South of Scotland area which will be of benefit to communities, including Langholm. The second phase of the Review has been exploring options for the new vehicle which will be set out in the Phase Two report, which I expect to be published after the General Election.

Transport Scotland assesses the safety performance of the trunk road network, including the A75, on an annual basis by screening all locations where three or more personal injury accidents have occurred in the preceding three year period. Further investigations are carried out and where appropriate, mitigation measures are prioritised and delivered. This ensures that the limited funding available can be targeted at those locations that provide the greatest accident casualty savings.

Alongside accident clusters, we also look at accident patterns and rates in the form of Route Accident Reduction Plans. This ensures that the fullest possible consideration is given to accidents that may be spread along a corridor.

The long term trend displayed in overall accident figures on this route indicates a reduction of 46% from 1979 to the most recent figures available.

We are aware of current aspirations for a new railway station at Thornhill through discussions with the Local Regional Transport Partnership, SWestrans and as an issue raised at the Dumfries & Galloway Transport Summit held in August 2016.

Subject to parliamentary business, I would be happy to meet with the Thornhill Station Action Group, failing that I will ensure that my officials are available.

The Scottish Government understands how important good quality housing is for Scotland’s future prosperity and for the strength and diversity of our communities. That is why over the lifetime of this Parliament we are investing over £3 billion to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes across Scotland, in both rural and urban communities, 35,000 of which will be for social rent.

Through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme we have various housing initiatives designed to increase the number of affordable homes for rent or purchase which will benefit rural Scotland. However, we understand that people in rural areas can face particular and specific difficulties in finding affordable homes to rent or buy. To this end we launched a £30 million Rural and Islands Housing Fund in 2016 to run for three years until 2018-19. This fund is open to a wide range of organisations and aims to increase the supply of long term affordable housing of all tenures in rural areas. It provides capital funding (grant or loan) to enable provision of both new build and refurbishment of empty properties and contributions of up to £10,000 for feasibility work.

An obvious error is one of a purely clerical nature that is obvious to us during a simple examination of a customer’s Single Application Form (SAF). It could also be an error we find during our coherence checks which reveals a contradiction in the information provided on a SAF or supporting documentation. We are still processing SAF 2016 so figures are not yet available for the number of cases where obvious errors have been identified.

The consequences for a failure to supply the correct information when completing the Single Application Form can be severe, with restricted scope for the Scottish Government to address any deficiencies in the information supplied by customers through application of the obvious error provisions. This is why customers are strongly encouraged to check the guidance carefully before completing their application and check the acknowledgment letter they are sent to ensure that they have completed their application form correctly.

We are still processing Single Application Form (SAF) 2016 so do not have a finalised figure for this. Information available to date shows that 155 businesses have not claimed their BPS entitlements when submitting their 2016 SAF.

The scientific data on bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) testing protocols and the use of tests in different circumstances are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals which are publicly available. Details of tests are available from the manufacturers of BVD test kits and from commercial laboratories that provide the tests to cattle keepers and vets.