Chamber and committees

New installations, and existing ones that are being substantially changed, are subject to Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) controls immediately. Existing installations are being phased into IPPC on a sector-by-sector basis between 2001 and 2007. The main sectors transferring to IPPC in 2001 are paper and pulp manufacturing and cement and lime production.

The Scottish Executive environmental awareness campaign, Do a Little - Change a Lot was launched on Wednesday 4 July. The First Minister, Deputy First Minister, Minister for Transport and Planning and I were joined on Calton Hill by environmental volunteers from across Scottish society to launch the campaign logo - a butterfly with saltire markings.

The £5.248m was made available for flood prevention activities as a consequence of the additional funds provided for in England and Wales following the severe flooding there last autumn. This additional funding, covering the period 2000-04, will be used to strengthen flood prevention arrangements in a number of important areas. Amongst the first of the initiatives being taken forward are steps to improve dissemination of SEPA's flood warnings, a pilot project for detailed survey work to identify low lying coastal areas that may be susceptible to sea level rise and research work to better identify assets at risk from flooding. This work, estimated to cost £1.5m, will be taken forward in parallel with the enhanced programme of flood prevention and coast protection schemes that local authorities are putting in place and will augment these efforts. Other follow on initiatives are also under consideration at present.

The Scottish Executive and its Agencies gave a commitment in its recently launched strategy document A Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture to a partnership approach for protecting and enhancing Scotland's environment. The document identifies action to improve advice for farmers, and finds solutions which are good for the environment and farming businesses. Steps include a Working Group to examine environmental issues which impact on farming, a revision of the Prevention of Environmental Pollution from Agricultural Activity (PEPFAA) Code, and support for the development of a CD-ROM on environmental management for agriculture. A copy of the strategy is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib number 14550).

The Scottish Executive is also sponsoring a research programme examining the impact, mechanisms and transport of agricultural diffuse pollution. Initial findings were published in the report Impact of Agricultural Practices and Catchment Characteristics on Ayrshire Bathing Waters, published in May 2001. It is available in the Scottish Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib No. 13787).

Based on this research, the Scottish Executive issued an advice note on the prevention of agricultural diffuse pollution at bathing waters to farmers in at-risk catchments on 20 July (Bib No. 14970).

To tackle nitrate pollution we shall be consulting with the farming industry in Autumn 2001 on new Nitrate Vulnerable Zones and the required Action Programme measures. We are developing guidance and will discuss with the industry how best to assist farmers in complying with statutory requirements.

To protect vulnerable groundwaters, farmers disposing of waste sheep dip and other agricultural chemicals to land are required to obtain authorisation from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in order to do so, under the Groundwater Regulations 1998.

The Agency also has powers to serve notices, relating to the storage, transport, handling and use of listed substances under the Regulations. Notice can impose conditions on or prohibit activities where there is a risk of pollution to groundwater.

The Scottish Executive will publish a sheep dipping Code of Practice later in the year for Scottish farmers, crofters and contractors. This will offer guidance on best practice to ensure dipping does not pollute groundwater.

Looking to wider diffuse pollution issues, the Scottish Executive issued Planning Advice Note No. 61 on incorporating Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems into new developments (Bib No. 14982), on 27 July. These systems deal in a natural, environmentally-friendly way with run-off from roads and car-parks. The technology also has a wider application, for example to farm yard drainage and septic tanks.

Looking to the future, the consultation paper Rivers, Lochs, Coasts: The Future for Scotland's Waters (Bib No. 14576), published on 29 June 2001, as a preliminary to the introduction of the Water Environment Bill, makes suggestions for systematic measures to tackle diffuse pollution, and invites comment.

Scottish Environment Protection Agency carries out a regular check programme of environmental monitoring around nuclear sites. Results are published jointly in the annual report "Radioactivity in Food and the Environment (RIFE)". A copy of the latest RIFE report is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre, (Bib no. 14600). To assess the effect of discharges, dose is calculated, at each site, for the group most likely to be most exposed, the so-called critical group. The dose to other members of the public at those locations will be smaller than that to the critical group.

Thus the indicator that is used to assess compliance is critical group dose. A summary table of critical group doses due to discharges of radioactive waste is presented in the RIFE report. The table for the 1999 report, the latest available, shows that critical groups in Scotland received doses which were a very small fraction of the internationally accepted limit of one millisievert per year and were in no case more than 5% of that limit. The dose to other members of the public was of course even lower. Thus the target of 100% compliance with limits was met.

Copies of the survey report have been placed today in the Parliament's Reference Centre. The main findings of the survey are also available on the Scottish Executive website.

Additional grant-in-aid, totalling some £16.5 million over the 3-year period 2001-02 to 2003-04, has been announced for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The extra grant-in-aid takes account of the increased responsibilities and duties that will fall to SEPA in implementing European and domestic legislation and in fulfilling the Executive's Programme for Government commitments. This includes the implementation of Scotland's National Waste Strategy. No ring-fenced funding has been allocated for this, or any other, specific initiative.

At least 25 sustainable development activities will be supported through grants. These activities will include seminars, research, community projects and promotion/co-ordination activity. Already this year we have funded a scoping study on strategic environmental assessment and a seminar on satellite working offices.

I am currently considering 70 applications for funding under the Sustainable Action Grant Scheme and will announce decisions shortly. I expect at least 20 activities will be funded in this way.

SEPA (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) is responsible for protecting Scotland's river quality. The Agency classifies rivers based on an assessment of chemical, biological and aesthetic indicators. Chemical measures include measures of organic, toxic and nutrient pollution. Biological aspects relate to the sampling of the abundance and diversity of water borne insects. The aesthetic component refers to accumulations of litter or debris.

On the basis of these three components, stretches of river length are classified annually as being:

Excellent

Good

Fair

Poor; or

Seriously polluted

The Scottish Executive does not appoint inspectors under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 (RSA93). The functions of the chief inspector, formerly appointed under section 4 of RSA93, were transferred to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) by virtue of the Environment Act 1995. Appointments of persons to exercise those functions are therefore now made by SEPA under section 108 of the 1995 Act. Section 108 sets out in detail the powers of such persons including, for example, powers of entry, investigation, taking of evidence, and enforcement.