- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 8 February 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is legally bound in any way by the provisions of the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information and, if not, what the precise status and effect of the code is.
Answer
Paragraph 8 of Part 1 of the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information states that the "Code is non-statutory and cannot override provisions contained in statutory rights of access to information or records (nor can it override statutory prohibitions on disclosure)."
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 7 February 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, before it approves an increase in the levies payable by farmers to the Meat and Livestock Commission, whether it will obtain from Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) full details of (a) its first year's accounts, or draft accounts if the certified accounts are not yet available, (b) the amount spent on the promotion of Scottish meat, (c) how that promotional money has been spent, (d) what consultation QMS has had with the industry and (e) what future consultation QMS plans to have with the industry
Answer
Quality Meat Scotland is not accountable to the Scottish Executive for its total expenditure although any expenditure arising from statutory levies is accounted for in the Meat and Livestock Commission Accounts which are published annually. MLC consultations on possible increases to beef and sheep levies are still not complete.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 22 December 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 5 February 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to make any announcements during the parliamentary recess; if so, when any such announcements will be made and why they will be made during recess.
Answer
Yes. Government continues even when Parliament is in recess. Members continue to ask questions at these times. As Mr Ewing will know he has asked around 150 questions during recesses.
- 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 or not the creation of offences under paragraph 19 of the Sheep and Goats Identification (Scotland) Regulations 2000 (SSI 2000/418) was necessary given that Article 9 of EU Directive 92/102/EEC on the identification and registration of animals states "Member States shall adopt administrative and/or penal measures to punish any infringement of Community veterinary legislation, where it is established that the marking or identification or the keeping of registers provided for in Article 4 has not been carried out in conformity with the requirements of this Directive" and whether any infringement of the Regulations could have been dealt with by administrative measures.
Answer
Article 9 of European Council Directive 92/102/EEC gives Member States the choice of measures they can adopt, either administrative or penal. Penal measures were introduced because the implementation and registration of animals are central both for veterinary and premium control purposes. On the veterinary side, they are essential for the control of outbreaks of disease and on the premium side to ensure compliance with EU Subsidy scheme rules.
- 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 the Sheep and Goats Identification (Scotland) Regulations 2000 (SSI 2000/418) are more detailed and more strict than the counterpart regulations imposed in England and Wales and, if so, whether it will give details as to why this is and, in particular, why the Scottish Regulations contain provisions regarding the powers of inspectors (paragraph 180) which are not in the Regulations for England and Wales.
Answer
The Scottish Regulations implement European Council Directive 92/102/EEC and this is reflected in corresponding legislation in the rest of GB. While there are some minor differences, the Scottish SI is no stricter in its application than the counterpart legislation in the rest of GB. The differences are mainly in drafting including: the implementation date; record keeping for subsidy purposes; movement of sheep off holding to a tattooist, and powers of inspectors and penalties.Specifically on record keeping, the veterinary legislation requires records to be kept for six years whereas the premium legislation stipulates a minimum of four years. Since the same flock data is used for both purposes, the Scottish SI specifies six years - to avoid the need to keep separate records.The powers for inspectors and penalties in England are given in detail under the Animal Health Act 1981 and therefore not contained in the English SI. Since the Scottish SI is made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972, the powers for inspectors and penalties require to be included in the Scottish SI. There are similar powers and penalties under the Animal Health Act 1981.
- 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 has any plans to amend the traceability system for cattle to permit more prompt identification of the calves of cows which are diagnosed as being BSE affected.
Answer
The traceability systems used for BSE and cattle tracing purposes are kept under review. Any lessons to be learned from this particular incident will be acted on as necessary.
- 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 has made any representations to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) in support of an investigation into the reasons for the delay in the diagnosis of a cow with BSE and the tracing of the offspring of that cow, part of which may have passed into the human food chain, and whether it will place details of the results of any such investigation by MAFF in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
Answer
The Food Standards Agency, the Scottish Executive and the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food are involved in investigating this incident. Any lessons learned will be acted upon.
- 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.
