- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 15 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will clarify what its power is in relation to the appointment of inspectors under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993; what duties and responsibilities such inspectors have, and to whom they report.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 15 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station has been prosecuted for any infringements of its discharge authorisation license since 1996 and, if so, when and with what results.
Answer
This is a matter for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
The SEPA website contains information on prosecutions at the following address:
http://www.sepa.org.uk/envdata/prosecutions/index.htm
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 15 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what environmental monitoring has been carried out around the Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station since the accident on 5 July 2001; to whom the results of the monitoring have been reported, and whether it will place a copy of these results in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
Answer
This is a matter for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. The information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 13 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to publicise whether a beach has been designated as fit for bathing.
Answer
The Bathing Waters (Classification) (Scotland) Regulations 1991, following the EC Bathing Waters Directive (76/160/EEC), require the identification of locations where bathing is not prohibited and is traditionally practised by a large number of bathers as bathing waters, for the purposes of the Regulations. Exclusion from the list of identified bathing waters does not mean that a stretch of water is unfit for bathing.
The list of identified bathing waters is given in the report Scottish Bathing Waters issued each year by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. These reports are also available on the Agency's website at:
http://www.sepa.org.uk/publications/environmental_reports/index.htm#bw.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 13 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what criteria are used to assign "designated" status to a beach.
Answer
In 1998-99, an independent Bathing Waters Review Panel examined nominations for identification as bathing waters for the purposes of the Bathing Waters (Classification) (Scotland) Regulations 1991. The sole criterion, suggested by the Panel, was that members of the public should use the site for bathing in significant numbers. The 37 additional identifications made in 1999 represent all those waters the Panel recommended on that basis.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 13 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to monitor pollution levels at the 52 bathing beaches which have not been designated as fit for bathing.
Answer
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency monitors over 50 recreational waters which have not been identified as bathing waters. Results of this monitoring are published in the Agency's annual report on
Scottish Bathing Waters, available on the Agency's website at:
http://www.sepa.org.uk/publications/environmental_reports/index.htm#bw.
Up to date information on this year's monitoring at some of these sites is also available on the Agency's website at http://www.sepa.org.uk/envdata/index.htm.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 13 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what criteria are used to designate a beach as fit for bathing.
Answer
Bathing waters, not beaches, are identified by the Scottish Executive for the purposes of the Bathing Waters (Classification) (Scotland) Regulations 1991. The Regulations implement in Scotland the EC Bathing Waters Directive (76/160/EEC). The Directive is intended to apply only at more frequented locations, and exclusion from the list of bathing waters does not, therefore, imply that a location is unfit for bathing. Obviously there will be a strong correlation between locations too little frequented to qualify for identification and excellent water quality.
For the criterion for identification I refer Ms McLeod to my answer to S1W-17048.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 13 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-16332 by Malcolm Chisholm on 29 June 2001, where the 37 fully qualified sign language interpreters in Scotland obtained their qualifications.
Answer
Sign language interpreters in Scotland obtain their qualifications at Heriot-Watt University.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 9 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-16331 by Susan Deacon on 29 June 2001, why figures regarding the Save Stobhill campaign were not given in the substantive answer to my question S1W-15646 until 29 May 2001 when they had been available from 15 May 2001.
Answer
There is no particular reason why the figures in question, which are neither confidential nor sensitive, were not provided before 29 May other than process.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by David Steel on 3 August 2001
To ask the Presiding Officer what percentage of Scottish Parliament documents are printed on recycled paper.
Answer
The Parliament is not able to provide figures on the percentage of its documents that are printed on recycled paper. However, the Parliament uses paper produced in an environmentally friendly way for most of its printing and publishing.
Paper provided for use in photocopiers, fax machines and printers is a mixture of 100% recycled paper and virgin paper. Printer, fax paper and light use photocopiers use paper made up from 100% de-inked post - consumer recycled waste. It is of high quality and is easy to recycle. The dust generated from the use of recycled paper could effect the operation of heavy use photocopy machines. As a result heavy use photocopiers are supplied with virgin paper. The virgin paper comes from trees in Scandinavia planted specifically for paper production. For every tree felled, two are planted.
At least 75% of the paper constituents used for headed paper, compliment slips etc, are made from 100% de-inked post consumer waste.
Paper used for Parliament publications produced by The Stationery Office, although not made from recycled materials, carries the Nordic Ecolabel for low emissions during production and is 100% recyclable.
