Chamber and committees

No Minister or official has attended a preparatory committee meeting for the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development.Kevin Dunion of Friends of the Earth Scotland attended the third preparatory committee in New York as a representative of the Scottish Executive from 28 March to 3 April. He is an external member of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Sustainable Scotland and a member of the civic delegation for the Summit. Mr Dunion had already arranged to attend as an NGO (Non Governmental Organisation) and by attending as the Scottish Executive representative on the UK delegation he was able to report the proceedings to the Executive. The Scottish Executive did not bear any costs of Mr Dunion's attendance.

The answer to question S1W-27593 explains that the programme for the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development has not yet been finalised. Therefore we cannot estimate costs for some of the categories requested. The costs we can estimate at present for the Scottish Executive delegation total is £10,420. This comprises:

1. accommodation per delegate: 10,550 Rand (approximately £675)
total accommodation costs: 42,200 Rand (approximately £2,700)All hotel rooms must be booked through the Johannesburg World Summit Company (JOWSCO), a non-profit company wholly owned by the South African government. JOWSCO have imposed a 10-day minimum charge for each room for the duration of the Summit, so the high charge is unavoidable.
2. JOWSCO will charge approximately £40 per person to provide shuttles for travel from accommodation to summit venues for delegates.

total cost: £160

3. return flights to Johannesburg per delegate including tax: £1,890
total cost: £7,560
4. Accreditation to the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development is free.

The cost of supporting the Scottish civic delegation is outlined in the answer to question S1W-27506.A Scottish Executive official was part of the UK preparatory visit at the end of July in order to organise the programme for the Scottish delegation. This is estimated to have cost £2,100.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-27505.

The Scottish Executive makes representations to the United Nations through the UK Government. The Executive has prepared a report describing the work in Scotland on sustainable development since the Rio Summit in 1992 and the main points made in the stakeholder consultation undertaken last year. I have sent this to the UK Government to feed into reports they may make to the United Nations. Copies are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 22146) and on the Executive website.

The Executive does not plan a specific response to the 10 point action plan published by Link's steering group on the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Work is already progressing. Many of these action points and these areas are covered by other reports already published by the Executive, for example through Meeting the Needs and Scotland's Renewable Energy Potential-Beyond 2010 and through the establishment of the Scottish Sustainable Development Forum, which had its first meeting in Dundee on 24 July.

We announced our decisions on local authority bids for revenue support for school Public Private Partnership projects on 25 June 2002. I refer the member to the answer given on that day to question S1W-27026.

The Scottish Executive is in the process of establishing the reasons for this proposed withdrawal of funding.

The Scottish Executive does not contribute directly to the Scottish European Resource Centre's funding. It was, however, content that Community Learning Scotland and currently YouthLink Scotland use some of the Executive's grant for match funding of the centre.

Under the terms of the consent to release this variety of genetically modified oilseed rape, the consent holder must ensure that no harvested rapeseed from oilseed rape grown within 50 metres of the GM plants will be put into the human food or animal feed chains. The farmer is at liberty to market any conventional oilseed rape growing beyond this 50 metre separation distance. Our advisers are confident that such a crop poses absolutely no threat to human or animal health.

The Executive is considering this matter.