Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland has been tasked with preparing proposals for the development of biomass energy in Scotland, with particular reference to the use of wood fuel. The Group is considering both the potential for the sector and the economic and environmental benefits that might accrue. I expect that its report will be published before the end of the year.

This information is not held centrally. Average waiting times are not regarded as a particularly effective measure of the availability and efficiency of drugs services.

Our national initiative to improve the collection and monitoring of waiting times for drug services in Scotland will, therefore, provide the Executive and Drug Action Teams with details of the number of people who wait for less than one week, less than two weeks, and so on, for up to four different treatment and support interventions.

The national waiting times information framework for drugs services began in April 2004. The first information output will be available by the end of November 2004.

Despite some signs of potential improvement, cod remains well outside safe biological limits and continues to require careful stewardship. The Scottish Executive is committed to the effective implementation of the EU’s Cod Recovery Plan as a means of promoting the long-term sustainability of the stock while enabling the Scottish fleet to continue to pursue carefully managed fishingopportunities in the North Sea. The Executive considers that a complete closure of the fishery would be disproportionate.

North American Signal Crayfish have been confirmed in river locations in the Kirkcudbright Dee, the Skyre Burn (Fleet catchment), Daer Water (Clyde catchment), the River Earn (Tay catchment), two locations in Fife and in the River Nairn. Sightings have also been reported in ponds in the North Esk, Tay and River Tyne (East Lothian) catchments.

Under the terms of the Prohibition of Keeping or Release of Live Fish (Specified Species) (Scotland) Order 2003 it is an offence to both keep and release crayfish without a licence from Scottish ministers. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 also makes it an offence to release this species into the wild.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has taken steps to deal with the signal crayfish issue in Scotland. As well as helping to fund eradication programmes, it has also commissioned a research report entitled, Preparation and Implementation of a Strategy for the Containment of American Signal Crayfish in the River Dee Catchment, Kirkcudbrightshire. SNH is also involved in the development of publicity materials for this species, which are designed to educate the public about the dangers of translocating signal crayfish to other waters.

Figures on the numbers of road accident fatalities and injuries by police force area are published regularly in “Key Road Accident Statistics” and “Road Accidents Scotland”. These figures, together with the other information requested, are given in the following tables. They relate only to accidents that were reported to the police. The figures for the first quarter of 2004 are provisional. Figures for the second quarter will become available in November. Percentage changes are not given for quarterly figures, because of the small numbers involved.

Casualties by Police Force Area and Parliamentary Region¹,

2001 to 2004 1st Quarter

Fatalities by Police Force Area

Police Force Area	2001	2002	2003	Jan-Mar 2004 (Provisonal)
Northern	39	27	36	7
Grampian	50	49	50	12
Tayside	50	27	36	6
Fife	21	29	18	7
Lothian and Borders	41	38	45	8
Central	17	24	20	4
Strathclyde	117	92	116	24
Dumfries and Galloway	13	18	10	1
Scotland	348	304	331	69

 

Percentage of Total	2001	2002	2003	Jan-Mar 2004 (Provisonal)
Northern	11.2	8.9	10.9	10.1
Grampian	14.4	16.1	15.1	17.4
Tayside	14.4	8.9	10.9	8.7
Fife	6.0	9.5	5.4	10.1
Lothian and Borders	11.8	12.5	13.6	11.6
Central	4.9	7.9	6.0	5.8
Strathclyde	33.6	30.3	35.0	34.8
Dumfries and Galloway	3.7	5.9	3.0	1.4
Scotland	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

 

Percentage Change Over Previous Year	2001	2002	2003
Northern	-9.3	-30.8	33.3
Grampian	-5.7	-2.0	2.0
Tayside	117.4	-46.0	33.3
Fife	75.0	38.1	-37.9
Lothian and Borders	-28.1	-7.3	18.4
Central	-5.6	41.2	-16.7
Strathclyde	10.4	-21.4	26.1
Dumfries and Galloway	-7.1	38.5	-44.4
Scotland	6.7	-12.6	8.9

 

Fatalities by Parliamentary Region

Parliamentary Region1	2001	2002	2003	Jan-Mar 2004 (Provisonal)
Highlands and Islands	53	38	48	6
North East Scotland	61	50	53	15
Mid Scotland and Fife	64	58	59	12
West Scotland	29	19	33	6
Central Scotland	32	40	34	8
Lothian	30	22	24	5
South Scotland	47	63	60	12
Glasgow	23	14	18	4
Not Known2	9	0	2	1
Scotland	348	304	331	69

 

Percentage of Total	2001	2002	2003	Jan-Mar 2004 (Provisonal)
Highlands and Islands	15.2	12.5	14.5	8.7
North East Scotland	17.5	16.4	16.0	21.7
Mid Scotland and Fife	18.4	19.1	17.8	17.4
West Scotland	8.3	6.3	10.0	8.7
Central Scotland	9.2	13.2	10.3	11.6
Lothian	8.6	7.2	7.3	7.2
South Scotland	13.5	20.7	18.1	17.4
Glasgow	6.6	4.6	5.4	5.8
Not known2	2.6	0.0	0.6	1.4
Scotland	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

 

Percentage Change Over Previous Year	2001	2002	2003
Highlands and Islands	-10.2	-28.3	26.3
North East Scotland	24.5	-18.0	6.0
Mid Scotland and Fife	64.1	-9.4	1.7
West Scotland	-12.1	-34.5	73.7
Central Scotland	45.5	25.0	-15.0
Lothian	3.4	-26.7	9.1
South Scotland	-16.1	34.0	-4.8
Glasgow	-8.0	-39.1	28.6
Not Known2	n/a	n/a	n/a
Scotland	6.7	-12.6	8.9

 

Non-fatal injuries by police force area

Police Force Area	2001	2002	2003	Jan-Mar 2004 (Provisonal)
Northern	1,205	1,081	1,176	225
Grampian	1,554	1,488	1,418	305
Tayside	1,640	1,556	1,362	298
Fife	991	1,051	982	242
Lothian and Borders	4,059	3,885	3,598	843
Central	842	964	1,027	188
Strathclyde	8,705	8,359	8,252	1,826
Dumfries and Galloway	565	569	574	128
Scotland	19,561	18,953	18,389	4,055

 

Percentage of Total	2001	2002	2003	Jan-Mar 2004 (Provisonal)
Northern	6.2	5.7	6.4	5.5
Grampian	7.9	7.9	7.7	7.5
Tayside	8.4	8.2	7.4	7.3
Fife	5.1	5.5	5.3	6.0
Lothian and Borders	20.8	20.5	19.6	20.8
Central	4.3	5.1	5.6	4.6
Strathclyde	44.5	44.1	44.9	45.0
Dumfries and Galloway	2.9	3.0	3.1	3.2
Scotland	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

 

Percentage Change Over Previous Year	2001	2002	2003
Northern	4.8	-10.3	8.8
Grampian	-2.8	-4.2	-4.7
Tayside	7.1	-5.1	-12.5
Fife	-6.9	6.1	-6.6
Lothian and Borders	-6.4	-4.3	-7.4
Central	-8.3	14.5	6.5
Strathclyde	-3.0	-4.0	-1.3
Dumfries and Galloway	-6.9	0.7	0.9
Scotland	-3.0	-3.1	-3.0

Non-Fatal Injuries by Parliamentary Region

Parliamentary Region1	2001	2002	2003	Jan-Mar 2004 (Provisonal)
Highlands and Islands	1,578	1,517	1,712	304
North East Scotland	2,086	2,124	1,835	371
Mid Scotland and Fife	2,310	2,284	2,246	506
West Scotland	2,094	2,037	2,143	440
Central Scotland	2,555	2,389	2,351	508
Lothian	3,145	2,930	2,709	639
South Scotland	2,664	2,764	2,606	586
Glasgow	2,901	2,812	2,717	662
Not Known2	228	96	70	39
Scotland	19,561	18,953	18,389	4,055

 

Percentage of Total	2001	2002	2003	Jan-Mar 2004 (Provisonal)
Highlands and Islands	8.1	8.0	9.3	7.5
North East Scotland	10.7	11.2	10.0	9.1
Mid Scotland and Fife	11.8	12.1	12.2	12.5
West Scotland	10.7	10.7	11.7	10.9
Central Scotland	13.1	12.6	12.8	12.5
Lothian	16.1	15.5	14.7	15.8
South Scotland	13.6	14.6	14.2	14.5
Glasgow	14.8	14.8	14.8	16.3
Not known 2	1.2	0.5	0.4	1.0
Scotland	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

 

Percent Change Over Previous Year	2001	2002	2003
Highlands and Islands	1.4	-3.9	12.9
North East Scotland	1.0	1.8	-13.6
Mid Scotland and Fife	-0.1	-1.1	-1.7
West Scotland	-9.2	-2.7	5.2
Central Scotland	-3.4	-6.5	-1.6
Lothian	-4.8	-6.8	-7.5
South Scotland	-4.1	3.8	-5.7
Glasgow	0.4	-3.1	-3.4
Not Known2	n/a	n/a	n/a
Scotland	-3.0	-3.1	-3.0

Notes:

1. Figures for parliamentary regions are approximate as the road accident statistics system was not designed to provide figures for these areas. They are based on information collected and reported by the Police, and do not take account of any subsequent changes to the statistical information about locations of the accidents that local authorities may have made, based on their knowledge of the roads and areas concerned.

2. In a small number of cases the information provided about the grid co-ordinates of the location of the accident is insufficient to identify the parliamentary constituency in which an accident occurred.

The designation Aberdeen Angus refers to a breed rather than a country or place of origin. The Executive is considering whether to take up, in Scotland, the voluntary provisions in EU legislation permitting member states to require country of origin labelling.

We are currently consulting on changes to the Renewables Obligation (Scotland) which will extend the levels of the Obligation until 2015-16, create a UK market in Renewable Obligation Certificates, secure the buy-out fund and allow greater flexibility for smaller generators. Subject to that consultation, we plan to introduce any resulting changes in April 2005.

We have also completed a short consultation looking at the terms of reference for a fundamental review of the Obligation which will take place next year. This will consider the impact of the Obligation so far, its profile beyond 2015-16, the interface between the Obligation and the Emissions Trading Scheme and possible measures to support heat and other technologies. We would intend to introduce any changes arising from the review, following full consultation, in April 2006.

The report published in June 2003 by the Transmission Issues Working Group (TIWG), comprising Scottish Power, Scottish and Southern Energy, National Grid Transco, DTI, the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government and Ofgem, established clearly that the existing grid requires significant strengthening and modification if our renewables potential is to be fully exploited. The report is available at http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/renewables/technologies/tiwgreport.pdf.

The TIWG continues to meet regularly to monitor and discuss progress.

In 2002, the number of visitors who came to the United Kingdom from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland was estimated from survey data to be around 150,000,132,200 and 188,500 respectively. Of these visitors, 3% from both the Czech Republic and Hungary and 8% from Poland were estimated to come to Scotland. 

In 2003, the number of visitors who came to the United Kingdom from the Republic of Ireland was estimated from the available survey data to be around 2,488,000, of which 2% were estimated to come to Scotland.

These figures are taken from the UK-wide International Passenger Survey (IPS), which samples overseas visitors to Scotland entering the country through Edinburgh and Glasgow airports only (although from 2005 onwards, visitors who enter Scotland through Prestwick will also be surveyed under the IPS). This data is then grossed up to approximate for visitors entering through other airports. No Scottish ferry ports are included in IPS surveying; again, survey data from particular ports of entry in England and Wales from the Republic of Ireland is grossed up to an all-UK figure.