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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: S2W-11615

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 19 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to develop biofuels and what funds it has allocated for this purpose.

The Scottish Executive supports the UK’s Powering Future Vehicles strategy which aims to promote the development and take-up of new vehicle technologies andcleaner fuels, including biofuels. The Executive is represented on theMinisterial Low Carbon Group which oversees the implementation of the strategy.In addition, the Executive is supporting, through a £1.2 million RegionalSelective Assistance grant, the building of Scotland’s first large-scalebiodiesel production plant. It is anticipated that this development will leadto an increase in the number of outlets selling biodiesel in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-11614

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 19 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of grants it has paid for the growing of forestry and woodland, detailing the top 20 recipients and the amounts each received, in each of the last three years.

The Scottish Executive currently administers two grant schemes for the growing of forestry and woodland. The Scottish Forestry Grants Scheme (SFGS), which replaced the Woodland Grant Scheme (WGS) in 2003, is run by Forestry Commission Scotland. The Farmland Premium Scheme (FPS), which replaced the Farm Woodland Premium Scheme (FWPS) in 2003, is run by the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD).

The level of grant paid by these schemes for each of the last three years is as follows:

Scheme	Year Paid, £ Million
2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
WGS/SFGS	£16.49	£13.96	£16.04
Farm Woodland Scheme	£05.00	£05.50	£06.20
Total Grant Paid	£21.49	£19.46	£22.24

The amounts paid to the top 20 recipients for each scheme are shown below. These are shown separately as they are separate schemes.

Amounts Paid to the Top 20 Recipients for WGS/SFGS

	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
1	£398,983.90	£567,864.15	£474,815.82
2	£381,049.11	£338,813.50	£262,005.05
3	£267,893.42	£219,279.34	£210,583.81
4	£202,652.98	£216,393.98	£162,264.28
5	£191,617.67	£202,757.00	£153,691.50
6	£186,253.53	£184,490.51	£142,002.30
7	£152,105.00	£155,321.30	£141,742.44
8	£150,029.40	£152,430.41	£133,488.54
9	£149,537.89	£148,949.21	£119,424.85
10	£147,835.70	£127,304.50	£118,705.68
11	£140,817.18	£121,785.58	£112,441.53
12	£139,886.32	£119,033.85	£110,513.60
13	£139,390.40	£118,425.26	£108,338.88
14	£137,043.29	£110,056.86	£106,475.25
15	£135,080.65	£109,130.90	£105,730.65
16	£128,571.88	£108,633.00	£102,536.17
17	£127,778.53	£107,321.70	£101,942.03
18	£124,209.03	£100,970.51	£100,001.50
19	£116,731.50	£97,902.00	£96,726.60
20	£116,694.76	£94,890.39	£95,735.50

Amounts Paid to the Top 20 Recipients for FWPS/FPS

	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
1	£126,586.60	£130,921.60	£132,498.00
2	£117,448.00	£117,448.00	£119,222.00
3	£98,298.80	£60,618.60	£80,059.50
4	£43,801.60	£53,507.60	£58,496.80
5	£40,977.80	£43,834.00	£56,736.00
6	£35,736.80	£40,977.80	£50,159.40
7	£35,566.60	£26,408.80	£49,508.00
8	£30,879.00	£26,214.20	£41,379.00
9	£27,472.00	£25,448.20	£39,886.40
10	£26,214.20	£25,293.00	£37,588.00
11	£25,488.20	£25,072.00	£34,053.80
12	£24,086.40	£24,933.00	£29,333.20
13	£23,284.00	£24,087.40	£28,832.80
14	£23,238.60	£24,050.00	£28,751.40
15	£22,687.00	£23,238.60	£28,152.00
16	£22,214.00	£22,644.00	£26,673.80
17	£21,580.00	£22,475.00	£26,169.00
18	£21,348.00	£21,348.00	£25,171.00
19	£20,952.00	£20,936,60	£23,904.00
20	£21,916.00	£20,916.00	£23,712.00

Question reference: S2W-11612

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will attract new entrants into the agricultural industry and what incentives are currently available for this purpose.

The Scottish Executive recently announced that new entrants to agriculture - since 2002 and up until 2 November 2004 - shall have access to a National Reserve under the new Single Farm Payment Scheme. This will provide assistance, in the form of an allocation of entitlement from the reserve to receive Single Farm Payment, to those that have entered farming under the current support arrangements. No specific provision has been made for new entrants to farming after 2 November 2004, but the position will be reviewed at the end of 2005.

Question reference: S2W-11617

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) volume and (b) value was of fish caught in Scottish waters in each of the last three years.

The EC log book regulation requires fishermen to declare the amount of fish caught in each sea rectangle, and identify which zone of a rectangle in cases where the rectangle is split by third country waters, for example between EU and Norwegian waters.

There is no requirement under the regulations to differentiate between Scottish and other UK waters.

Therefore the volume and value of fish landed by UK vessels, plus any additional landings by foreign vessels into the UK, from an approximation of Scottish waters is shown in the table below.

Fish/Shellfish	Year
2001	2002	2003
Fish	Live weight (tonnes)	386,537	377,913	348,515
Value £	231,583,073	231,483,033	199,337,430
Shellfish	Live weight (tonnes)	29,944	33,726	32,575
Value £	50,260,946	53,876,639	54,137,141
Total live weight (tonnes)	416,481	411,639	381,091
Total value £	281,844,019	285,359,672	253,474,570

Question reference: S2W-11616

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 October 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 19 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to develop biomass and what funds it has allocated for this purpose.

Question reference: S2W-12006

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will respond to the McInnes Report on the review of summary justice.

Question reference: S2W-12050

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on what countries have voting rights on the executive committee of the North Sea Regional Advisory Council and how many votes each country has.

The North Sea Regional Advisory Council (NSRAC) General Assembly put forward the organisations listed below to its Executive Committee on 4 November 2004. Each organisation with a seat on the Executive Committee will have one vote except for the Danmarks Fiskeriforening and the Stichting van de Nederlandse Visserij who will have two, to allow them equal voting rights with the UK and France who have two fishing organisations each on the committee.

Fishing interests

UK (Scotland): Scottish Fishermen’s Federation,

UK: National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations,

Denmark: Danmarks Fiskeriforening,

Netherlands: Stichting van de Nederlandse Visserij,

France : Comité National des Pêches Maritimes et des Elevages Marins,

France : Union des Armateurs á la Pêche de France,

Belgium: Rederscentrale,

Germany: Deutscher Fischerei Verband,

Sweden: Sveriges Fiskares Riksforbund,

Spain : Federación Española de Organizaciones Pesqueras,

Poland : Polish North Atlantic Producers Association,

EU: European Organisation for Fish Traders,

EU: European Association of Fishing Ports and Auctions, and

EU: European Transport Worker’s Federation.

Other interests

Seas at Risk,

World Wide Fund for Nature,

BirdLife International,

Federation of European Aquaculture Producers,

European Anglers’ Alliance,

North Sea Women’s Network, and

European Fishing Tackle Trade Association.

There remains a vacancy for consumer organisation on the Executive Committee of the North Sea RAC.

Question reference: S2W-12029

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 19 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many psychologists are employed in each NHS board, broken down by category and expressed also on a per capita basis, and what the average waiting times are for an appointment for each category of psychologist.

The data on psychologists has been provided in the table below which is based on Whole Time Equivalent and is correct at 30 September 2003.

Table 1 - Applied Psychologists by NHS Board (Whole-Time Equivalent (WTE) at 30 September 2003)

	Clinical Psychologists Grade B	Clinical Psychologists Grade A	Other Applied Psychologists(*)	Total WTE of All Applied Psychologists	Ratio of per capita population to 1 WTE of All Applied Psychologists
Argyll and Clyde	9.7	11.8	2.5	25.0	16 919
Ayrshire and Arran	10.6	7.3	1.8	19.7	18 879
Borders	4.1	4.1	1.0	9.2	11 875
Dumfries and Galloway	7.2	3.6	1.0	11.8	12 719
Fife	16.1	18.5	4.0	38.6	9 205
Forth Valley	11.2	9.8	0.0	21.0	13 429
Grampian	8.8	21.9	4.4	35.0	15 091
Greater Glasgow	33.4	39.8	2.1	75.3	11 627
Highland	4.8	7.3	1.0	13.1	16 075
Lanarkshire	10.1	15.7	3.7	29.5	18 949
Lothian	24.4	30.2	5.2	59.9	13 145
State Hospital	1.2	4.0	1.0	6.2	not relevant
Tayside	11.0	16.0	0.0	27.0	14 507
Scotland	152.5	191.0	27.7	371.0	13 633

Source: ISD Scotland.

Notes *“Other Applied Psychologists” include Counselling Psychologists, Health Psychologists, Forensic Psychologists and Neuropsychologists.

Information on waiting times for an appointment with a psychologist is not available centrally.

Question reference: S2W-12052

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 19 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much, and what percentage of, timber was imported in the last three years.

Figures are not available for Scotland. However, the latest UK figures indicate that the total timber import figures were 10.9 million cubic metres in 2001, 11.4 million cubic metres in 2002 and 12.2 million cubic metres in 2003. These figures cover sawnwood and woodbased panels.

Imports of all wood products as a percentage of total consumption (production and imports) represent 65% in 2001, 66% in 2002 and 67% in 2003.

Question reference: S2W-12051

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 November 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 19 November 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding was allocated to each NHS board in each of the last three years and how much funding has been allocated for each of the next three years, expressed also on a per capita basis.

Details are as follow:

NHS Board	2001-02 Total Allocation (£ Million)	2001-02 Per Capita £	2002-03 Total Allocation (£ Million)	2002-03 Per Capita £	2003-04 Total Allocation (£ Million)	2003-04 Per Capita £	2004-05 Total Allocation (£ Million)	2004-05 Per Capita £
Argyll and Clyde	454.343	1,080	476.764	1,139	509.567	1,222	564.615	1,354
Ayrshire and Arran	386.696	1,050	412.956	1,125	446.036	1,215	496.343	1,352
Borders	111.389	1,042	117.69	1,096	127.071	1,174	141.848	1,310
Dumfries and Galloway	162.489	1,100	173.251	1,176	185.178	1,258	207.027	1,406
Fife	334.372	956	358.873	1,009	382.916	1,088	427.666	1,215
Forth Valley	276.361	990	294.722	1,055	312.759	1,118	342.25	1,224
Grampian	502.968	956	539.08	1,030	576.841	1,102	609.3	1,164
Greater Glasgow	1034.98	1,192	1118.24	1,291	1176.2	1,358	1273.03	1,469
Highland	231.063	1,106	246.927	1,186	266.721	1,276	301.076	1,440
Lanarkshire	554.346	1,002	574.003	1,038	624.011	1,128	684.807	1,237
Lothian	771.94	991	775.075	995	886.27	1,136	920.438	1,180
Orkney	24.498	1,275	25.696	1,338	27.033	1,400	29.623	1,534
Shetland	28.239	1,286	30.974	1,412	33.308	1,523	34.162	1,562
Tayside	459.06	1,181	473.887	1,223	496.043	1,283	533.85	1,381
Western Isles	43.869	1,659	46.515	1,775	50.265	1,926	53.368	2,045

Firm allocations for 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08 have still to be finalised following the outcome of the 2004 Spending Review. NHS boards will be notified of firm allocations for 2005-06 in the near future.