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Highlands and Islands Enterprise''s budget was reduced to reflect the refocusing of the organisation as part of this government''s reform of the enterprise networks.

Rather than having a negative impact on the economy, the reforms will enable it to maximise its contribution to economic recovery and growth by focusing more clearly on those activities likely to have the greatest economic impact on economic recovery and increased sustainable economic growth.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise continues to focus its interventions on selected account managed businesses and anticipate that many of these will benefit from opportunities arising from the Pentland Firth. The scale of the development of the Pentland Firth is such that the intervention of public funds will only be a small part of the total investment required. Highlands and Islands Enterprise is, therefore, prioritising its resources to ensure the most effective leverage of private funds.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise has identified savings of £2.3 million for the period 2008-13 as a result of the refocusing of their priorities.

The first meeting was held on 16 July 2009, and the detailed rules will need to be finalised by the beginning of 2010.

My officials have written to all members of the Less Favoured Area (LFA) stakeholders group inviting them to join a small technical working group to discuss detailed rules for the future of the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS). The following organisations have accepted the invitation: NFU Scotland, Scottish Rural Property Business Association (SRPBA), Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Environmental Link, National Sheep Association (NSA), Scottish Crofting Foundation (SCF), Scottish Beef Cattle Association (SBCA), and National Beef Association (NBA) Scotland.

The Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) payments for 2007-09 were calculated on certain frozen LFASS 2006 historic values, including grazing categories. For LFASS 2010, it is the intention to rebase using 2008 data. The precise detail of how this rebasing is to be done has still to be decided and will form part of the discussions within the technical working group.

In principle, the Scottish Government intends that all agricultural activity will be taken into account in the new activity rules. However, the detailed rules have still to be drawn up and this will be one of several issues to be discussed by members of the technical working group.

To help tackle the issue the Scottish Government continues to provide funding to the independent environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) who run a number of anti-litter campaigns designed to raise public awareness of the problem. KSB also coordinate a number of other programmes, including the Blue Flag award scheme and the Seaside Award.

In April, KSB once again ran their annual month long National Spring Clean campaign. The 2009 campaign has proven to be a great success, with a record level of almost 58,000 people volunteering to participate in clean-up events across Scotland. Coastal clean-up events proved to be very popular, with 80 such events involving a total of 8,665 volunteers talking place. Overall, enough litter was collected across Scotland to fill almost 29,000 wheelie bins. While many groups already take part in voluntary clean ups organised by KSB during the rest of the year, National Spring Clean provides an opportunity for schools, youth clubs, environmental organisations, voluntary groups, community gatherings and businesses to play an important part in a bigger, coordinated campaign.

KSB, through the two beach award schemes, the Blue Flag and the Seaside Award, also encourages beach managers to provide information about beach litter and its impacts at all award beach information boards to raise public awareness of the problems.

Through the Scottish Bathing Water Litter Grant Scheme we are also tackling the litter problem at bathing waters and their beaches. The grant scheme, administered by KSB on our behalf, aims to encourage communities to carry out clean-ups of beaches close to bathing waters, or to run litter prevention campaigns or support and promote community action with a focus on reducing marine and coastal litter pollution. The 2009-10 grant application deadline is the end of June 2009. Further information is available on the KSB website http://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/.

 

The Scottish Government is actively involved in discussions with the UK Government and devolved administrations as part of our involvement in wider international efforts on control of marine litter. The Fishing for Litter initiative was recently considered at the British-Irish Council Environment Group on 19 April 2009. Also, the OSPAR Biodiversity Committee and its Environmental Impacts of Human Activities Working Group continue to consider the issue of marine litter.

The Scottish Government is supporting initiatives on marine and coastal litter and expects local authorities and other bodies to continue to work together to take action to tackle the problem.

The Marine (Scotland) Bill includes proposals for a new system of marine planning including new powers to define Scottish marine regions for which a local marine plan should be prepared in consultation with stakeholders. The proposals also include provisions for the co-ordination of plans covering the terrestrial and marine environment. These proposals provide an opportunity for better consideration of beach and marine litter issues where necessary.

Existing legislation in Scotland is amongst the toughest in Europe. A person who is caught littering is, if the case goes to court, liable to a fine of up to £2,500. Alternatively, the person may be offered the opportunity to pay a fixed penalty fine, the level of which is £50.

Police officers and designated local authority officers have the power to issue fixed penalty notices to those who litter. However, as independent bodies, whether local authorities empower officials to issue notices and whether police forces exercise their powers, is entirely up to them. They are encouraged to do so by the Scottish Government.

The Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse (COPLAR) provides practical guidance on the use of the litter enforcement powers contained in the act. COPLAR website, operated by the independent environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB), provides guidance on the issuing of fixed penalty fines. The information can be found at http://www.littercode.org/index.asp?pg=41.