- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 17 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what it has done to promote farmers’ markets in order to reduce food miles.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the growth of farmers markets in Scotland. We have funded the Scottish Farmers Market Partnership with around £200,000 over three years to help them support farmers markets throughout Scotland. Since the project began in January 2010, the partnership has provided advice and support to over 100 individuals and around 50 farmers markets. The partnership has also dealt with over 1,500 enquiries from consumers and prospective farmers'' market stall holders at information stands organised at the Royal Highland Show and the BBC Good Food Show Scotland.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 17 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of (a) children and (b) adults in Tayside has access to an NHS dentist.
Answer
At 30 September 2010, 79.8% of children and 66.6% of adults living in Tayside were registered with an NHS dentist.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 17 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what initiatives it has brought in to reduce regulation on the farming community.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3O-11876 on 11 November 2010. All answers to oral/written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 17 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many times it has replaced regulations with new versions rather than add to existing regulations since May 2007.
Answer
Most of the regulation impacting on Scotland''s farmers and land managers comes from Europe and to ensure they fully meet its obligations under the terms of the Scotland Act, Scottish ministers must implement relevant EU rules. Since 2007, a total of 105 SSI''s have been made in the broad area of agriculture replacing or revoking 63 previous SSI''s.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 17 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what schemes it has piloted for agencies to work together to ensure that they carry out inspections of farms in a single visits.
Answer
Since launching in June 2008, Scotland''s Environmental and Rural Services (SEARS) - a partnership of eight delivery-focused bodies within the Environment and Rural Affairs portfolio - has looked for opportunities to combine inspections where appropriate.
By end March 2010, SEARS reduced the number of service-generated, separate inspections and visits to rural land managers by 4,996. SEARS is on target to deliver a further reduction of around 3,000 by end March 2011.
Details of the schemes involved are described in the SEARS Annual Reviews 2008-09 and 2009-10.
http://www.sears.scotland.gov.uk/pdf/SEARS_Annual_Review_2008-09.pdf.
http://www.sears.scotland.gov.uk/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 16 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the comment by John Swinney in motion S2M-3155 that the A9 “will remain fundamentally unsafe until it is reconstructed as a dual carriageway from Perth to Inverness.”
Answer
The Scottish Government remains committed to the phased dualling of the route from Perth to Inverness to further improve safety and reduce journey times on this key transport corridor. This ongoing commitment is reflected in the recent commencement of a £10.4 million scheme at Crubenmore which will see the construction of a 3.2 km extension to the existing dual carriageway.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 16 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the use of the term, sexmas, and whether it considers that this might cause offence to Christians.
Answer
The word Sexmas was used in one image as part of last year''s digital public health information drive to reduce rates of sexually transmitted diseases in Scotland, and absolutely no offence was intended. The word is not used in any of this year''s material.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many new regulations the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has recommended since May 2007.
Answer
None. The Scottish Government works with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) on an ongoing basis on the development of legislation affecting the environment. A good number of environmental regulations are introduced to implement European legislation. We also have regular discussions with SEPA on its Better Environmental Regulation programme that focuses on options to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of environmental regulation and to reduce the regulatory impact on businesses. SEPA has recently issued a consultation paper on options for moving from separate environmental regulations for air, water, waste and radioactive substances to a simpler, integrated model.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many regulations Scottish Environment Protection Agency has advised should be withdrawn since May 2007.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-38225 on 16 December 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 14 December 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to run a sexual health campaign in the run-up to Christmas using the name, Sexmas Survival Guide.
Answer
There will be no sexual health campaign of that name. It is important, however, that young people get the right advice on sexual health issues at this time of year, when we know high risk behaviour takes place. We will, therefore, be refreshing and enhancing existing online sexual health information and advice over the festive period.