- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 1 February 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what priority will be given to crofters and small hill farmers in less favoured areas in the allocation of modulation funding.
Answer
The activities into which modulated EU resources can be allocated are specified in Council Regulation (EC) 1259/99. To comply with this legal requirement, estimated amounts of modulated EU resources have been allocated in Scotland to agri-environment and forestry schemes, which apply across all our rural areas. All farmers and crofters in Scotland will have access to these schemes. There is no similar legal constraint on the matching resources secured from the UK Exchequer. Where this money is spent on schemes included in the Highlands and Islands Special Transitional Programme, a sum will be allocated which is proportionate to the amount modulated from farmers and crofters in that area.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 1 February 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre all memos, letters, e-mails and other communications between it and (a) the Food Standards Agency Scotland and (b) the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on all the circumstances of the handling of the case of the 25-month-old animal from England whose mother was infected with BSE, which was slaughtered at an abattoir in Scotland on 8 January 2001 and parts of which may have entered the food chain.
Answer
The documents requested cannot be placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre as their disclosure could harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion between Ministers and their officials. The Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information provides an exemption in such circumstances.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 18 December 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 31 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the major review of cities announced by the First Minister on 18 December 2000 will include the city of Inverness.
Answer
Yes. Further details of how the review will be conducted will be announced shortly.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 31 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what the latest estimate is of (a) the number of motor vehicles in Scotland and (b) the number of these which presently run on liquid petroleum gas.
Answer
At 31 December 1999, the latest date for which information is available, there were 2,131,000 motor vehicles licensed in Scotland. Information on the number of motor vehicles running on liquefied petroleum gas is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Morrison on 30 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning has received representations from a group of business people operating within the Lochaber area, comprising Alan Kirk of McTavish's Kitchens, Stewart MacLean of Innseagan Holidays and 16 others, regarding proposals for the promotion of tourism in the area; if so, whether a meeting with the group will be arranged as a matter of urgency in order that their proposals could be implemented in relation to the 2001 season.
Answer
Yes. The letter raises a number of issues relating to the tourism industry. These are being considered and a full reply will be sent as soon as possible.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 29 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to bring forward the commencement order in respect of the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 in order to ensure that home owners do not continue to face demands from feudal superiors for payments for waiver of title conditions and whether it will canvass MSPs in order to establish how widespread this practice continues to be.
Answer
We will bring forward the commencement order in due course. The Property Law Reform programme is a package and we will assess the appropriate date for commencement when the next Bill in the package - the Title Conditions Bill - has been enacted. We expect to consult on a draft Title Conditions Bill in the spring. Meantime, we have no plans to conduct a survey of MSPs, but would of course be happy to receive any information from them.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is considering any further measures, other than those contained in the Salmon Conservation (Scotland) Bill, in relation to the conservation of salmon; if so, what measures are being considered; what stage such consideration has reached and what measures will be introduced.
Answer
The terms of the Salmon Conservation (Scotland) Bill are deliberately non-prescriptive to allow district salmon fishery boards to apply for a range of conservation measures. The Executive expects individual boards to put together a package of conservation measures which will address the problems in their particular district.In the meantime, the analysis of responses to the consultation exercise on "Protecting and Promoting Scotland's Freshwater Fish and Fisheries" currently in progress, will no doubt raise a number of issues for consideration.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has investigated the level of by-catch in the industrial and pelagic fisheries and, if so, what conclusions have been reached.
Answer
Industrial fisheries are conducted predominantly by Denmark and Norway and are not routinely monitored by scientists from the Scottish Executive. Both Denmark and Norway provide the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) with estimates of bycatch from their industrial fleets. The following table shows estimated catches in tonnes for the principal species for the period 1995-99 reported by ICES. With the exception of herring, most of the species are caught in fisheries for Norway pout and the so-called "mixed" industrial fishery. In the case of herring, most of the catch is taken in the fishery for sprat.
Bycatch of the principal fish species taken as bycatch in small meshed fisheries conducted by Denmark and Norway in the North Sea.
| 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
| Cod | 366 | 1688 | 1,281 | 532 |
| Haddock | 5,000 | 7000 | 5,000 | 4,000 |
| Whiting | 5,000 | 6000 | 3,000 | 5,000 |
| Saithe | 0 | 3000 | 3,000 | 3,000 |
| Dab | 1,065 | 2662 | 6,620 | 4,317 |
| Mackerel | 2,019 | 3153 | 1,934 | 2,728 |
| Horse mackerel | 2,369 | 3332 | 2,576 | 5,116 |
| Herring | 39,000 | 15000 | 16,000 | 23,000 |
The main pelagic fisheries are for herring, mackerel and horse mackerel. The bycatch of non-target species in these fisheries is very low and is not routinely monitored.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will introduce a decommissioning scheme for Scottish registered fishing boats and, if so, when and with what budget.
Answer
I have agreed to have discussions soon with industry representatives on a range of topical issues, which will include decommissioning.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made representations to Her Majesty's Government regarding the banning of drift netting off the North East coast of England, as opposed to reducing it by the means of the issue of fewer licences.
Answer
The Executive has long recognised the impact of the North East Drift Net Fishery on salmon returning to Scottish rivers. We have in the past expressed concerns to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food about this fishery and, therefore, welcome their recent announcement about plans to accelerate its phase out.
