Bill Walker

Answer · Keith Brown · 23 Jul 2013

In the event of a vote for independence in September 2014, decisions on post-independence budgets would be for future Parliaments to take.
You may be interested to know that since 2007 the Scottish Government has invested over £2.6 billion to maintain and improve our trunk road network, and that statutory responsibility for local road improvements, maintenance and repair lies with local authorities. In 2013-14 as part of the Local Government Finance Settlement the Scottish Government has provided local authorities with over £10.3 billion for roads.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse · 30 Jul 2013

Scottish Natural Heritage has been coordinating a comprehensive national conservation action plan for Scottish wildcat during the last nine months. This has sought to obtain agreement from a wide range of partners and is due to be published shortly. The conservation action plan will include both in situ and ex situ conservation actions. Full costs for all aspects of the action plan will need to be produced during the project development phase with a view to getting actions in place by the autumn of 2014.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse · 30 Jul 2013

There are no plans to put in place formal protected areas for Scottish wildcats. Although wildcats are a European Protected Species, they are listed on Annex IV of the Habitats Directive rather than Annex II, for which protected areas can be designated. Also, wildcats are wide ranging species and hence their protection does not lend itself to a designated site approach.
However, the conservation action plan for Scottish wildcats being coordinated by Scottish Natural Heritage, to be published shortly, will seek to target in situ conservation measures to priority geographic areas for wildcats. The measures will include approaches to the management of wild-living domestic cats and hybrids and promoting responsible ownership of domestic cats in these areas. The wider programme of actions will seek to work with land managers and the wider community in these areas.
Over the coming year further survey work will be on-going to establish the best areas within which to focus conservation efforts and their geographic extent.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse · 30 Jul 2013

The Scottish Cairngorms Wildcat project ran from 2009-2012. Scottish Natural Heritage, Cairngorms National Park Authority and Forestry Commission Scotland were partners in the Cairngorms Wildcat Project, along with the Royal Zoological Society for Scotland and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association.
The project was a trial of practical conservation actions in an area considered to be a stronghold of the Scottish wildcat. The project aimed to tackle the threats facing Scottish wildcats by:
Working with land managers to ensure that predator control was wildcat-friendly, supporting the work of cat welfare organisations which neuter feral cats around towns, villages and farms, and encouraging responsible domestic cat ownership (i.e. increased neutering and vaccination) in the Cairngorms National Park, monitoring the wildcat population and the extent of both hybridisation and disease with the input of land managers and the public and raising awareness of the plight of the Scottish wildcat.
A conservation action plan, which has been co-ordinated by Scottish Natural Heritage and is due to be published shortly, will build on the work carried out on the Scottish Cairngorms Wildcat project and will contain a detailed programme of work to help conserve the Scottish wildcat.

Answer · Paul Wheelhouse · 30 Jul 2013

There is currently no reliable basis from which to produce an estimate of the number of wildcats in the wild in Scotland. A number of estimates have been put forward, however none of these are considered to be reliable.
As part of a conservation action plan for Scottish wildcat is being coordinated by Scottish Natural Heritage and which is due to be published shortly, further work will be on-going to determine priority geographical areas for wildcat conservation. This will involve efforts to obtain an estimate of the numbers of wildcats in these areas. However, obtaining reliable population estimates for wildcats is very challenging; because they occur at low densities, are cryptic and largely nocturnal and because of the potential for confusion with domestic cats and hybrids. Hence the survey methods required for verifiable estimates are resource and time intensive.
While establishing wildcat numbers is clearly important for establishing local population viability, it would require significant dedicated resources to produce a national population estimate with any confidence. In conservation terms, this is currently considered a lower priority than putting conservation actions in place and monitoring populations in priority areas.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop · 26 Jun 2013

Although the census was carried out on the same date in all UK countries, Scotland developed its own separate timetable and approach for releasing the data, designed to ensure outputs are of high quality and relevant to users of Scottish data.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop · 26 Jun 2013

Release 2 outputs from Scotland’s Census, which will include statistics relating to religion, are due to be published from late summer 2013. Detail about this release and further information is available from the National Records of Scotland publication: Scotland’s Census 2011 Outputs Prospectus which can be found via:
www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk.

Answer · Fiona Hyslop · 26 Jun 2013

Scottish data from the 2011 Census is already available to the public online via the Scotland’s Census website http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk:
Population estimates from the 2011 Census were published in December 2012. Population estimates at local authority level were published in March 2013. More detailed results, based upon answers to all the questions included in the 2011 Census questionnaire, will continue to be released throughout 2013. A full plan of our release schedule can be found in our Census Outputs Prospectus (available from the Scotland’s Census website).