Since the £400 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme began, as our response to a failing in the UK wide model to deliver broadband services to many communities across Scotland , take -up of fibre broadband has been encouraged through extensive promotion, including press releases, regular briefings for local and national politicians as well as a variety of pro-active activities in recently activated areas, such as post-code mail shots and direct engagement through community councils.

The DSSB website provides extensive information about the current programme along with a helpful enquiry form, enabling the public to contact the project teams directly with specific queries.

To date, as a result of better than expected take-up of broadband services by customers with 48.6% in rest of Scotland and 53% in the HIW area, £17.83 million has been brought forward through Gainshare by BT, across the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme Of this, £15.6 million has been invested in the 'Rest of Scotland' contract and a further £2.23 million in the Highlands and Islands contract. This has resulted in further deployment in every local authority area across the country. We are not able to break this amount down by Parliamentary region.

Registered social landlords (including subsidiaries) who operate as a property factor are regulated by the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011. The Act requires all property factors to be registered and then to comply with a code of conduct (the Code) which sets out minimum standards of practice in the delivery of services to homeowners.

The Code, amongst other things, requires all registered property factors to ensure transparency in financial and charging arrangements as well as when arranging for repairs and maintenance to be undertaken. The Code also requires a property factor to provide a homeowner with a copy of its complaints procedure that should set out the steps taken by the property factor to resolve such complaints.

These measures allow a homeowner to hold their property factor to account and to challenge poor practice where this arises.

Home owners are responsible for the cost of work to repair their own homes and for their share of common works in tenements, which may include a share of costs for work determined by a majority of other owners. Local authorities have broad discretionary powers to provide assistance to home owners who have difficulty in paying for repairs, subject to local resources and priorities. Where an owner is unable or unwilling to pay for their share of common works the local authority has discretionary power to pay the missing share, make a charge against the property, and recover it in instalments. A registered social landlord can pay, and recover, a missing share, if they own property in a tenement. The Scottish Government is also currently piloting an equity loan scheme in eight local authority areas, which can be used to help home owners fund repairs.

General information on making a complaint to a registered social landlord can be found at: https://www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk/publications/complaints-about-regulated-body .

Registered social landlords (including subsidiaries) who operate as a property factor are also regulated by the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011. The Act requires all property factors to be registered and then to comply with a code of conduct (the Code) which sets out minimum standards of practice in the delivery of services to homeowners. It is a requirement of the Code for a property factor to provide a homeowner with a copy of its complaints handling procedure.

A homeowner should inform their property factor in writing of the reason why they consider their property factor to have failed to comply with the Code and/or failed to carry out its duties. If the property factor refuses or unreasonably delays in attempting to resolve the complaint, then the Act provides a route of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber which, among other things, enables owners to have their concerns about their property factor adjudicated by an independent judicial body. The First-tier Tribunal have the power to issue a legally binding property factor enforcement order if it finds in the homeowner’s favour.

The circumstances under which an individual or company who is owed money can initiate bankruptcy proceedings will apply equally to registered social landlords and factors.

There are formal steps that must be taken to recover debts prior to petitioning for the bankruptcy of an individual in the Sheriff Court. This usually involves going to court to demonstrate that the person owes the debt. The Sheriff Court will issue a decree if satisfied that the debt is owed and this will enable the creditor to instigate formal recovery action including the issue of a Statutory Demand or Charge for Payment. On expiry of a prescribed period with debt remaining outstanding, a creditor petition can be presented to the Sheriff Court requesting that the person who owes the money be declared bankrupt. On receipt of a creditor petition, the Sheriff Court shall set a date for a hearing and the debtor will have the opportunity to challenge the bankruptcy proceedings.

The following conditions must be met before a creditor can present a petition:

• The creditor (either an individual or company) must be owed at least £3,000 which can include fees, charges and interest which has been added to the original debt - if the debt is below £3,000 the creditor can lodge a joint petition with other creditors provided the combined debts are at least £3,000.
• The person owing the debt must receive a copy of the statutory Debt Advice and Information Package containing information about where to get advice and what will happen if the debt is not repaid - this must have been issued at least three weeks and not more than 12 weeks before making a petition.
• The creditor must be able to demonstrate that the person with the debt is unable to repay their debts and therefore apparently insolvent - normally in the form of an expired Charge for Payment or Statutory Demand.

Representatives from the Scottish and Isle of Man Government’s last discussed scallop management on 23 October 2018. Officials from the two administrations took part in a meeting (which included representatives from industry and other fisheries administrations) to discuss the queen scallop fishery. Trends in the fishery were debated and proposals for the seasonal closure of fishery in 2019 were developed.

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme (SMASS) which investigates and collects records of strandings, including entanglements.

Between 2015 and 2018, there were seven cases reported by SMASS as being consistent with entanglement, of which two were confirmed as being witnessed as entangled prior to stranding. Those seven reports consisted of: one northern bottlenose whale, one humpback whale, four minke whales and one killer whale. In addition there were two cases of bycatch of harbour porpoise.

SMASS are leading on the “Scottish Entanglement Alliance” project. This three year project aims to work closely with the Scottish inshore fishing industry to provide a co-ordinated, comprehensive monitoring and entanglement programme to better understand the scale and impact of marine mammal entanglement.

The Scottish Government supports work to reduce the risk of entanglement of wildlife at sea. In 2017 the Scottish Government signed up to the Global Ghost Gear Initiative, to tackle ghost gear in our shared seas and oceans, and we encourage responsible disposal of fishing gear by our fleets through our work with KIMO, and our work with the other administrations of the British Irish Council to improve end of life gear recycling.

Where a core path has been routed across a residential garden area, the landowner can submit a request to the relevant ‘access authority’ - the local authority or, within a national park, the National Park Authority - that the core path be re-routed.

Responsibility for determining such a decision lies initially with the access authority. The process is set out in section 20 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (LRSA). Alternatively, if the request relates to a planning matter, the relevant planning authority has powers under section 208 and Schedule 16 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997.

There are no duties placed on any bodies for meeting the costs of a re-routed path, unless an obligation is conferred for example within a path agreement (section 21 of the LRSA), or relating to a path order (section 22 of the LRSA), planning consent, or duty of care.

Core paths networks may comprise a range of surfaces, including natural grass, beaten earth, farm and forestry tracks, quiet minor roads and pavements, and other artificial surfaces. The access authorities have powers to undertake works and are responsible for determining their local priorities and the allocation of their resources. Other funding sources are also available, for example through Sustrans Community Links.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-21818 on 5 March 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .