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Safeguarding Scotland’s rural environment and rural economy is a key priority. However, due to the failure of the UK Government to negotiate a decent Pillar 2 budget, Scotland has been left at the bottom of the pile in terms of EU rural development funding.

Farming in our uplands is an important part of our rural landscape and this Government values very highly the contribution that Scotland's sheep farmers make in these remote and challenging areas. That is why this Government chose to support upland sheep farmers through a number of CAP schemes. Under Pillar 1 of the CAP, the Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme provides support to upland sheep producers in Scotland's rough grazing areas. Hill farmers are also supported through the Basic Payment Scheme.

Hill farmers are given a high priority under Pillar 2 of the CAP (SRDP 2014-2020) to ensure rural communities remain sustainable for future generations. Over £65.5m is paid annually through the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) to provide vital support to around 11,500 farmers and crofters who operate in rural and remote areas of Scotland. Unlike the UK Government, which has ended their equivalent scheme, we have committed to continue it in Scotland.

In addition, further support is available through other SRDP schemes such as the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme (CAGS) and Agri-Environment-Climate Scheme (AECS).

Unfortunately I am unable to give farmers and crofters assurance on LFASS from 2019 as, despite repeated requests, the UK Government has still not guaranteed that the scheme will be funded in 2019. I have continued to press the UK Government on this issue, seeking assurance over LFASS 2019 and also the full £190 million in CAP convergence uplift, but to date we have had no reply.

It is only fair that we receive swift confirmation on LFASS 2019 and that the full convergence monies are repatriated to Scotland so that we can provide certainty to our farmers and crofters, and afford to pay them a rate that ensure the economic viability and sustainability of these remote areas.

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.

The Scottish Government has been working with our national skills agency, Skills Development Scotland (SDS), on the skills shortage in the haulage industry.

SDS worked with key partners including RHA and commissioned a review of the Labour Market conditions related to the shortage of drivers within the Scottish Transport Network. The report made recommendations, aimed at tackling the current skills supply and demand issues relating to HGV drivers.

One of the recommendations was to set up a stakeholder group aimed at addressing skills shortages in this area. An initial meeting of this group took place on 11 May, with the first official meeting taking place in June 2017.

The Road Haulage Association have developed a pilot project aimed at tackling the HGV driver skills shortage. The RHA were successful in securing funding for 250 job starts through the Transition Training Fund (TTF) set up to support those who have worked in the oil and gas sector.

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

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.