- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 December 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30833 by Ross Finnie on 18 November 2002, why, if it is its policy to give crofting communities the opportunity to buy their croft land, it also plans to allow such communities to buy salmon fishings on contiguous land that is not theirs, with no further tests.
Answer
The bill does not permit crofting communities to buy salmon fishings located on contiguous land. It is the salmon fishings themselves which have to be contiguous.There are tests that apply to the acquisition of salmon fishings. These are the same as apply to the acquisition of the croft land. However, there is also a further requirement that the salmon fishings may only be acquired in conjunction with the croft land or within a year of acquisition of the croft land in accordance with the provisions of the bill.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 December 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to the estimate of one application per year to exercise the crofting community right to buy contained in the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, as referred to in paragraph 324 of the Explanatory Notes to the Bill, how many such applications it estimates will contain a salmon fishing as one of the subjects of the application.
Answer
No estimate has been or can be made. There are too many uncertainties. If experience of existing community purchases is anything to go by, a significant proportion of crofting community bodies may not be interested in acquiring salmon fishings. However, we consider it important that the opportunity to do so should be available.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 December 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30836 by Ross Finnie on 18 November 2002, whether there will be two public interest tests when an application is made under Part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, namely that the application is in the public interest using the qualified definition in the bill and that it is in the public interest in the normal sense of the phrase as applied to Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Answer
As stated in the answer given to question S1W-30836, the purpose of section 71(2) of the bill is to elucidate the meaning of the phrase "public interest" as used in the bill. Whether or not ministers consider a proposed acquisition by a crofting community body is in the public interest will depend on the facts and circumstances of each particular case.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 December 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30831 by Ross Finnie on 18 November 2002, why it was not intended that salmon fishings on land contiguous to croft land should be subject to the additional tests found in section 74 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
If the acquisition of salmon fishings in accordance with the provisions of the bill was made subject to the highly restrictive tests in section 74, the outcome would be to ensure that a crofting community body could rarely, if ever, purchase salmon fishings. That outcome would not be consistent with our policy intentions.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 December 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-30836 and S1W-30837 by Ross Finnie on 18 November 2002, why, if the exercise of the crofting community right to buy under the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill must be in the public interest in order to be compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), there is no test of the public interest, in the sense of the phrase as applied to Article 1 of Protocol 1 of ECHR, in the bill.
Answer
Article 1 of Protocol 1 of ECHR provides that no one shall be deprived of their possessions except inter alia in the public interest. This is why an acquisition under the crofting community right to buy must be in the public interest in order to be compatible with the Convention. What constitutes the "public interest" in each particular case can only be decided on the facts of that case.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 December 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30835 by Ross Finnie on 18 November 2002, whether it is satisfied, bearing in mind the opinion of the Court of Session in the case of County Properties v the Scottish Ministers and, in particular, paragraph 19 of that opinion, that the approval of applications made under Part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill will be fair, given that none of the safeguards mentioned in paragraph 19 of the opinion will be present.
Answer
The approval of applications by Scottish ministers under Part 3 of the bill will be fair in that the provisions of that part are in accordance with the general principles laid down by the courts in both the County Properties and Alconbury cases. There is provision in section 78 for any interested party to refer any question arising from an application for consent to buy to the Land Court and section 88 provides a right of appeal against ministers' decision on questions of law.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 28 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what level of traffic it considers is required before a trunk road, such as the A9, should be upgraded to dual carriageway status.
Answer
Decisions on choice of carriageway standard are based on the combined results of economic, operational and environmental assessments. A modern single carriageway such as sections of the A9 between Perth and Inverness can carry an average annual daily flow of 22,000 vehicles. Where additional overtaking opportunities are considered necessary, widening by providing climbing lanes or wide-single carriageway is assessed. A wide-single carriageway can carry an average annual daily flow of 32,000 vehicles. Dual carriageway is considered where the additional benefits that further upgrading would create exceed the additional costs that would be incurred.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 28 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish its assessment of traffic levels on the A9 trunk road between Perth and Inverness in each of the last five years.
Answer
The annual average daily flows at various locations along the A9 between Perth and Inverness are assessed as follows:
| Location | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 |
| A9 Tomatin | 7,077 | 7,494 | 7,224 | 7,147 | 6,837 | 8,082 |
| A9 Kerrow (A86) to Lynwilg (B9152) | | | | | 7,488 | 8,147 |
| A9 Calvine to Dalwhinnie(A889) | | | 8,180 | | 7,986 | 8,136 |
| A9 S of B847 - at Shierglas | | | | | 7,437 | 7,947 |
| A9 Pitlochry Bypass - S of A924 | 7,168 | | | | 8,453 | 8,697 |
| A9 Birnam | 10,509 | 11,592 | 11,352 | 10,853 | 11,034 | 12,609 |
| A9 N of B8063 - at Luncarty | | | | 13,821 | 13,991 | 15,359 |
Figures are shown in each case where data is available for the relevant area.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive when, in the consultation process for the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill prior to the bill's publication, the acquisition of adjacent salmon fishings was proposed to be subject to the crofting community right to buy.
Answer
The first occasion when responses to a consultation proposed that crofters should have a right to buy salmon fishings was in responses to the paper on the crofting community right to buy circulated to members of the Crofting Consultative Panel. Four of those responses suggested this. The bill does not provide for the purchase of adjacent salmon fishings but only for the purchase of salmon fishings that are exercisable from and on croft land.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive why salmon fishings are the only non-croft land to be included in the crofting community right to buy contained in Part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
Salmon fishings are not the only non-croft land to be included in the crofting community right to buy. The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill provides for the acquisition by the crofting community body of additional land that is not croft land. Salmon fishings and minerals are separate tenements of land and as a consequence may be held on a separate title from the land itself. Both of these can be acquired by the crofting community body through the crofting community right to buy along with or separately from the croft land.
