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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S1W-31064

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 2 December 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive which meetings of the (a) European Council, (b) Council of the European Union, (c) Coreper and (d) EC committees and working groups and which informal meetings of the Council of the European Union that are still to be held under the Danish Presidency it will attend; how many representatives will attend each meeting and which minister, or what grade of official from which department or agency, will attend.

Question reference: S1W-31063

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 2 December 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive which meetings of the (a) European Council, (b) Council of the European Union, (c) Coreper and (d) EC committees and working groups and which informal meetings of the Council of the European Union held under the Danish Presidency it has attended to date; how many representatives attended each meeting, and which minister, or what grade of official from which department or agency, attended.

Scottish Executive ministers attended the following Council meetings held under the Danish Presidency between 1 July and 30 November:

Date	Meeting	Minister
23 - 24 September	Agriculture and Fisheries Council (Brussels)	Ross Finnie
14 - 15 October	Agriculture and Fisheries Council (Luxembourg)	Ross Finnie
17 October	Environment Council (Luxembourg)	Ross Finnie
11 November	Education, Youth and Culture Council (Brussels)	Elaine Murray
26 November	Competitiveness Council (Brussels)	Iain Gray
27 - 28 November	Agriculture and Fisheries Council (Brussels)	Ross Finnie

Officials have attended the following additional meetings held under the Danish Presidency between 1 July and 31 October, which is the period for which information is currently available:

Date	Meeting	Department
1 - 2 July	Working Group on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.	ERAD
2 July	Working Group Danish Presidency programme of work in the energy field	FCSD
3 July	International Environment Issues: Preparation for World Summit on Sustainable Development	FCSD
9 - 10 July	Working Group on Fisheries Control	ERAD
15 July	Working Group on Vocational Education and Training	FCSD
16 July	Working Group on Market access to Ports Services Directive	FCSD
22 - 23 July	Special Committee for Agriculture - Mid-term Review of the Common Agriculture Policy	FCSD
24 July	Working Group on Cereals	ERAD
25 July	Working Group on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.	ERAD
27 July	Working Group on the impact of enlargement on fisheries	ERAD
2 - 3 September	JHA Working Group	JD
5 September	Working Group on Internal market - Science and Technology regional statistics	FCSD
9 September	Working group on Youth	FCSD
10 September	Working Group on Energy - biofuels and Intelligent Energy for Europe programme	FCSD
12 September	Working Group on Common Fisheries Policy Review	ERAD
16 September	Working Group on Mid-term review of the Common Agriculture Policy	FCSD
17 September	Working Group on Vocational education and training	FCSD
18 September	JHA Working Group	JD
18 September	Working Group on field inspections under the 2000 and 2001 Arable Area Payment Scheme	ERAD
19 - 20 September	Police Co-operation Working Group	JD
19 - 24 September	Fisheries Research	ERAD
19 September	Working Group on Common Fisheries Policy Review	ERAD
24 - 26 September	JHA Working Group	JD
25 - 26 September	Working Group on EU-Iceland fisheries negotiations	ERAD
26 September	Working Group on Common Fisheries Policy Review	ERAD
27 September	Working Group on Agricultural Structures & Rural Development	ERAD
27 September	Working Group on Biotech Action Plan	FCSD
2 - 5 October	Fisheries Research	ERAD
2 October	Education Working Group	ED
4 October	JHA Working Group	JD
5 - 9 October	Conference on crime prevention	JD
6 -10 October	Fisheries Research	ERAD
7 October	Special Committee on Agriculture - discussion on mid-term review of CAP	FCSD
7 October	Fisheries Research	ERAD
7 - 8 October	Special Committee on Agriculture	ERAD
8 - 9 October	JHA Working Group	JD
8 October	JHA Working Group	JD
9 October	Working Group on Biotech Action Plan	FCSD
9 - 10 October	Fisheries Research	ERAD
12 - 18 October	Fisheries - coastal states meeting on blue whiting	ERAD
14 - 23 October	Fisheries Research	ERAD
18- 23 October	Fisheries Research	ERAD
21 October	Working Group meeting on e-Europe 2005	FCSD
21 - 23 October	Fisheries - EU project meeting (OMEGA)	ERAD
21 October	JHA Working Group	JD
22 - 23 October	Fisheries Research	ERAD
28 - 30 October	Fisheries - coastal states meeting on mackerel	ERAD

Question reference: S1W-31606

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 November 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many official bi-lateral meetings between the Minister for Environment and Rural Development and EC Commissioner Fran' Fischler there have been in the last six months and how many such meetings are scheduled for the future.

Question reference: S1W-31607

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 November 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many bi-lateral meetings between the Minister for Environment and Rural Development and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the last 12 months and how many are currently scheduled for the future.

Question reference: S1W-31609

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 November 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has received about the extent to which the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea's (ICES) scientific advice takes into account the impact of those technical conservation measures adopted by the white fish sector in the last three years.

The ICES advice is based on scientific observation of the stocks and associated fishing activity. In so far as recent technical conservation measures have benefited particular stocks, that will be reflected implicitly in the assessments. However, it will not be possible to quantify the impact of the most recent Scottish measures until next year. In the meantime, ICES has explicitly recognised the potential of these measures in the mixed fishery for cod, haddock and whiting.

Question reference: S1W-31617

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 November 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any economic impact assessment has been conducted of various scenarios that may arise from the current fisheries negotiations in Europe and, if so, whether it will give details of each such assessment

Question reference: S1W-31615

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 November 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what the level and value of imports have been in each of the last 10 years of products from the North Sea industrial fishery and for what purpose such products are used.

Question reference: S1W-30553

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 October 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 27 November 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive which meetings between it and European Union Commissioners have taken place in each of the last three years and what future meetings are planned.

Question reference: S1W-31544

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 November 2002
Current Status: Answered by Richard Simpson on 26 November 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what the General Register Office for Scotland intends to do with its paper records once they are digitalised; where these records will be held; whether any will be destroyed; whether they will be made available to local historical societies or appropriate bodies, and what the timescale is for the digitalisation of these records.

As far as the statutory registers of births, marriages and deaths are concerned, two copies of each register are created, one of which is held by the local registration service which created it, and one which is sent to the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) in New Register House in Edinburgh. The registers held in New Register House will be preserved indefinitely. No decision has yet been taken on what will be done with the duplicate statutory registers held by local registration services when the digitisation of statutory registers has been completed. The registers themselves are the property of the Registrar General, while provision of storage and record accommodation is a matter for local registration services. Provision for the duplicate registers from a particular area will therefore be a matter for discussion between the Registrar General and the local registration service. GROS will be happy to be flexible in their approach to this, as they have been on previous occasions when registers have been replaced by microfiche.The other main sets of records that are being digitised by GROS are the open census records and the Old Parish Registers of the Church of Scotland, both of which are held at New Register House. These, again, will be preserved indefinitely.The Digitally Imaging the Genealogical Records of the Scottish people (DIGROS) project, under which the GROS is creating digital images of all its records, is expected to be completed by late 2003.

Question reference: S1W-30819

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 November 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any specific individual member of staff based in its European office in Scotland House, Brussels, has responsibility for press and media activity and, if so, what that person's remit is.