Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Executive has not yet made a decision on whether to replace the external adjudicators of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise with an ombudsman. The question was discussed in the Executive's consultation paper Modernising the Complaints System. The closing date for comments was 10 January 2001 and we are currently analysing the responses. The Executive aims to publish a second consultation paper in the spring, setting out detailed proposals based on these responses.In terms of Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), whatever complaints system is put in place after the consultation, whether a continuation of the current system or otherwise, will be compliant with ECHR.

In the Executive's consultation document An Open Scotland it was stated (paragraph 1.4) that "The statutory FOI regime will build upon, and extend, the principles of openness contained in the Code of Practice." A draft Freedom of Information Bill was published on 1 March 2001.

In order to answer the previous question, enquiries were made of the Headquarters of The Forestry Commission, Historic Scotland and the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency along with the Estate Management section of the Scottish Executive itself. The Agricultural Staff of the Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department who are responsible for managing Ministers land settlement estates (99% of which is tenanted croft land) were also consulted. These bodies account for some 800,000 hectares of land owned or controlled by the Scottish Executive. No individual enquiries were made of any specific estate or croft.

The Food Standards Agency has advised me that the EU ASP Working Group requested further information on the variation of toxin levels in individual parts of the scallop. A second, more detailed scientific report addressing this issue has been prepared and will be scrutinised by the working group in early April. The reports were prepared for the EU Working Group and they will decide on the circulation.Additionally work is being progressed by the Agency to ensure a rigorous enforcement regime, and an adequate monitoring programme can be developed which will guarantee consumer safety should a tiered approach be acceptable in scientific terms.

Where possible animals identified as offspring of BSE cases are traced and removed from the human food chain. Officials of the Food Standards Agency, the Scottish Executive and the Ministry of Agriculture are jointly considering whether, in this particular case, the offspring could have been removed at an earlier stage.

We are in regular contact with the UK Government on a range of issues.

No payments can be made to members of the Scottish Transport Group pension schemes before the Scottish Transport Group is wound up.

An Agriculture Council was scheduled for that week and it was thought that Mr Finnie would attend. The meeting was cancelled but because of an administrative oversight the information which had been entered on the department's database was not amended. Steps have now been taken to prevent similar errors occuring in the future. Information on ministerial attendance at EU meetings provided to the Parliament's Reference Centre has been amended.

Once the Scottish Transport Group is wound-up the Scottish Executive will be able to access the records held by the Trustees to the pension schemes. We expect these records will require some updating particularly as regards current addresses. In advance of wind-up, however, we have taken the following steps towards such updating: we have set up a dedicated phone line with voicemail advising callers to write to us for a pro-forma to register their interest and a letter providing background to the announcement; we have spoken and/or written to the main trade unions advising them of the position and have provided them with material to pass to their members who are making enquiries; we have written to the Confederation of Passenger Transport to explain the position and asked them to provide our information to all their Scottish bus company members, again supplying pro-formas for pension scheme members to send to us to help verify records; we have written to CalMac in similar vein (some of their employees will have been in STG pension schemes); and we propose to set up a departmental web page from which access to the latest information and pro-forma will be available.

It is not sportscotland's practice to disclose to third parties whether or not it has received an application from any particular person or group.