Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the Member to the answer to question SW4-13767 on 15 April 2013. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Officials had originally taken a relatively narrow view of the Scottish Public Finance Manual principles in awarding the Raasay lease for sporting rights to the highest rental value, taking account of a basic quality test that the new leaseholder would be capable of managing the sport and providing benefit to the local community, and their ability to meet the terms of the twenty nine conditions laid down in the particulars of let. Following the award of contract to South Ayrshire Stalking, Ministers were notified of the concerns of the community of Raasay and reviewed the decision. On the basis of the information presented to Ministers, we concluded that insufficient consideration had been given to non-financial issues and that wider community benefits, consistent with the broader principles of best value should have been taken into account.

The number of personal injury accidents on the entire length of the A92 between Dunfermline and Dundee (NB not numbers of casualties) is shown in the following tables.

A92 Single Carriageway Accidents by Year/Severity

	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
2002	1	13	43	57
2003	1	9	30	40
2004	2	13	36	51
2005	2	6	34	42
2006	1	9	33	43
2007	0	5	21	26
2008	0	4	25	29
2009	0	7	28	35
2010	3	5	40	48
2011	0	5	18	23
2012*	0	1	4	5
2013**	1	-	-	1
Total	11	77	312	400

A92 Dual Carriageway Accidents by Year/Severity

	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
2002	1	4	26	31
2003	2	7	27	36
2004	1	4	17	22
2005	1	11	29	41
2006	1	4	30	35
2007	1	6	31	38
2008	1	5	19	25
2009	0	3	18	21
2010	1	2	22	25
2011	0	1	28	29
2012*	0	0	5	5
2013**	0	-	-	0
Total	9	47	252	308

* 2012 - These statistics are not fully complete for all police forces and are subject to change on submission of further datasets however, the fatal accident figure is accurate.

** 2013 - Please note that 2013 records are not yet held on our accident manager system however, we hold a separate record of the fatal accident that occurred on 11 March 2013.

The figures quoted may differ slightly from those published elsewhere due to being extracted on a different date and the database may have changed between the two dates, e.g. due to late returns or corrections.

The available information on poisoned baits and the poisoning of birds and other animals is shown in the following table.

 

Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture, SASA, collate and publish data on animal poisonings information on a quarterly and annual basis on their website.

 

Birds confirmed as victims of poisoning abuse, 2008-2012:

 

Year	Golden Eagle	Sea Eagle	Buzzard	Red Kite	Peregrine Falcon	Sparrow-hawk	Tawny Owl	Raven	Crow	Magpie	All Birds
2008	0	1	14	2	0	0	0	3	0	0	20
2009	2	1	22	4	0	0	1	5	1	1	37
2010	4	1	13	7	2	1	0	0	1	0	29
2011	1	0	7	4	2	2	0	2	2	0	20
2012	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	4
Total	8	3	58	17	4	3	1	11	4	1	110

 

Other animals confirmed as victims of poisoning abuse, 2008-2012:

Year	Dog	Cat	Stoat	All Animals
2008	1	2	1	4
2009	0	5	0	5
2010	0	0	0	0
2011	1	2	0	3
2012	2	2	0	4
Total	4	11	1	16

Poisoned bait abuse incidents and number of baits recovered, 2008-2012

Year	Incidents	Number of baits
2008	8	22
2009	11	23
2010	12	15
2011	4	5
2012	3	5
Total	38	70

Decisions on the form and scope of the review of the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board have yet to be taken, but it is envisaged that towards the end of the year the consultation will be launched.

Since the vicarious liability provisions in the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 came into force on 1 January 2012 there have been no arrests, prosecutions or convictions of people for vicarious liability for relevant offences. Vicarious liability is not in itself an offence, but rather a land owner or manager may be held to be vicariously liable for relevant offences as set out in Section 18, Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981). The relevant offences under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 are those in:

Section 1(1), (5) or (5B)

Section 5(1) (a) or (b)

Section 15A (1)

These offences are in relation to the intentional or reckless killing, injuring of a wild bird or the damage to, or destruction of a nest or egg(s); the prohibition of certain methods of killing wild birds (e.g. by the use of traps or poisons); and the possession of certain prescribed pesticides.

Vicarious liability can be considered in relation to all relevant offences that are investigated or prosecuted. When any investigation for a relevant offence is ongoing, the possibility of an arrest or prosecution under the vicarious liability provisions will be considered.

Decisions on the form and scope of the review of the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board have yet to be taken. An assurance can be given that the key participants (NFUS, SLaE and Unite the Union) will be given an opportunity to present their views.

Yes. It is standard practice for the principles behind the Estates Charter to be taken into account when managing the Scottish Ministers’ estate, alongside other Scottish Government policies and the requirements of the Scottish Public Finance Manual.

<>Food Standards Agency Audits by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) of local authorities’ food and feed enforcement services are ongoing and take place throughout the year. In Scotland, FSA typically carries out twelve audits every year. Audit plans and audit reports are available on the FSA website: http://www.food.gov.uk/enforcement/auditandmonitoring/.

As a result of the horsemeat incident, the FSA plans to carry out two-day focussed food standards audits at a sample of three local authorities during April-June 2013. These will be used to further inform the evidence gathered during the desktop audit of 12 local authorities and previous audits that included all aspects of food law enforcement across all Scottish local authorities in previous years. This evidence will be used to determine any further action required to support effective food standards enforcement in Scotland.

Horsemeat incident

On the 23 January 2013 Scottish Ministers asked the FSA to work with local authorities to carry out focused food standards audits of approved processed meat manufacturers. Scotland was the first part of the UK to initiate this work, which is in addition to the actions set out in the FSA’s plan and the European Commission’s testing programme. Together with additional audits of standalone cold stores, the work entailed 226 inspections.

All the focused audits are now complete and no issues relating to horse DNA have been reported (as at 11 March).

As requested by Scottish Ministers on 23 January 2013, Foods Standards Agency Scotland asked Scottish local authorities to carry out focused food standards inspections at all approved premises producing processed meat products in Scotland. Local authorities report that there are a total of 201 such premises currently operating in Scotland.

All of the meat premises inspections are complete and no issues relating to horse DNA have been reported from the inspections. This programme was extended on 12 February 2013 to include cold stores (26 in total), so this makes 227 premises overall. All of the relevant cold stores visits have been completed to date.