Chamber and committees

The Patrol Vesselsof the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency operate in Scottish Territorial Waters,EU waters under Scottish jurisdiction and International waters to the west of Scotland. With the exception of Scottish Territorial Waters, allEU and UK registered vessels are permitted to fish, subject to available quota andfishing effort, within these areas. At 31 December 2006 the number of UK-registeredvessels was 6,758, the number of EU Registered vessels, excluding UK, was 80,185.

In 2007 the four PatrolVessels of the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency were operational for a totalof 1,135 Effective Patrol Days. An Effective Patrol Day is any 24 hour period duringwhich a vessel is available for operational deployment. The average number of PatrolVessels available for deployment on any one day was 3.11.

There are a numberof enforcement mechanisms in place to tackle illegal fishing activity includingreferral to court. The Scottish Government is implementing a system of administrativepenalties in April 2008 and also has in place a system of automatic licence suspensionwhere a vessels fishing entitlement can be suspended for periods of seven or 14days. There have been no recent discussions with ministers on the permanent removalof a vessels fishing entitlement.

The Scottish Governmentis not in a position to authorise the signing of a contract. For the time beingthe Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency will continue to carry out its presentmarine monitoring and surveillance tasks with four vessels and two aircraft.

The review findingsare in the process of being scrutinised. As stated on 27 June 2007 in the answer to question S3W-889 a copy of thereview will be placed in due course in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre and a further copy will also be made available then to the Rural Affairsand Environment Committee.

I have nowwritten to Ms Godman addressing the issues she raised and apologising for theunacceptable delay in replying to her earlier correspondence.

We have no plansat present to establish a Scottish Government task force on human trafficking. the Scottish Government is part of the UK Interdepartmental Ministerial Group onHuman Trafficking and Scottish Government officials sit on the group responsiblefor implementation of the UK Action Plan on Human Trafficking and for ensuringcompliance with the Council of Europe Convention Against Trafficking in HumanBeings.

ScottishGovernment officials sit on the ACPOS sub-group on human trafficking, which bringstogether representatives from Scottish police forces, the UK Human TraffickingCentre, the Borders and Immigration Agency, the SCDEA and others to co-ordinateenforcement work to combat human trafficking in Scotland.

Scottishrepresentatives also sit on the working groups set up by the UK HumanTrafficking Centre to take forward work on: training, learning and development;victim care; operations intelligence, and prevention of human trafficking.

Scottish ministerssit on the UK Interdepartmental Ministerial Group with responsibility foroverseeing implementation of the UK Action Plan on Human Trafficking and forensuring that the UK is fully compliant with the provisions of the Council ofEurope Convention on Human Trafficking.

The ScottishGovernment is currently working with counterparts in the UK Government toproduce an implementation plan detailing the exact steps required to be takento ensure compliance with the terms of the Convention.

It is primarily amatter for NHS boards to provide appropriate wheelchairs that meet the medical,postural and social needs of people who need them in their local communities,based on clinical assessment and national eligibility criteria, from thegeneral funding allocations that boards receive from the Scottish Government.

However,resources for the NHS wheelchair and seating services are being considered atpresent as part of our spending review. The outcome of the review will beannounced shortly.

The fivewheelchair centres in Scotland have a responsibility to assess serviceusers’ eligibility for a powered wheelchair, on an individual basis. This isbased on clinical assessment and national eligibility criteria and takes intoaccount the type and extent of the patient’s disability, whether the patientcan operate a powered chair independently and safety issues.

Following theindependent review of NHS wheelchair and seating services in Scotland, I have established a project board and haveappointed a project manager to carryout an in-depth analysis of the 40 recommendations flowing from the review, includingthose recommendations that relate to national eligibility criteria.

By December 2008,the project team will produce a costed action plan on the delivery of therecommendations identified, including evidence-based outcomes and timescales,for my approval. They will then implement those needs-based recommendationsthat are achievable, measurable and deliver the greatest benefits for themajority of service users.