Chamber and committees

The Executive has longrecognised the importance of family relationship services. We continue toprovide financial assistance, now under the Children, Young People and FamiliesUnified Voluntary Sector Fund, to support core and training costs of fournational family organisations including Family Mediation Scotland, and ten localfamily mediation services. The amounts total over £1.261 million for 2005-06.In addition, funding of £250,000 was available in 2004-05 and a further£250,000 is available again this year for the four national family organisations in return for their commitment to a change programme. The organisationsare working together more closely to integrate some of their administrativefunctions and structures, for the benefit of the end user.

The National Waste Strategy fullyreflects that recycling is only one option for dealing with waste. Options furtherup the waste hierarchy, such as waste reduction and reuse, are preferable to recycling.A Waste Prevention Action Plan is currently being developed in partnership withthe Scottish Environment Protection Agency to outline ways of reducing waste arisingsmore generally.

The “Dumb Dumpers” Stop Lineis co-ordinated by Keep Scotland Beautiful and its progress is being monitored throughthe Scottish Fly-tipping Forum.

Experience to date suggests thatthe public awareness of fly-tipping may be seasonal; that is, that the problem ismore noticeable in summer. Television advertising also appears to have had an influenceon the number of calls received as there is a significant increase after the “DumbDumpers” adverts are broadcast.

In addition to calls receivedby the Stop Line, other incidents are reported directly to the relevant local authorities.A more complete picture of the extent of fly-tipping in Scotland willbe provided when the Flycapture system commences on 1 April. This is being establishedwith funding from the Executive and will provide a national database for fly-tippingincidents across Scotland.

The member suggested to AllanWilson, when he was Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development, thathe might visit Doncaster to see their zero waste policy. No visits have takenplace, but we continue to keep in touch with zero waste policies followed in theUnited Kingdom and elsewhere in the world.

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues, including matters relating to corporate social responsibility.

We wish more Scottish businesses to publish corporate responsibility reports which give a thorough and honest appraisal of their social and environmental performance.

I refer the member to the answergiven to question S2W-14414, answered on 1 March 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-14414, answered on 1 March 2005.All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament'swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

We asked our Forum for RenewableEnergy Development in Scotland (FREDS) to advise on the actions that needed to betaken to develop the biomass energy sector with particular reference to wood fuel.A sub-group considered this and FREDS published a report on 31 January. It is availablevia our website at www.scotland.gov.uk. 

The report suggests actions thatcould benefit both the power and heat sectors. I will respond to those that areaddressed to the Executive as soon as possible and FREDS will monitor the responseby others charged with taking action. The FREDS sub-group will reconvene after theUK Government’s review of the heat sector has been completed and will advise onany further action that might be taken specifically in Scotland in relationto the use of biomass for heat.

I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-14414, answered on 1 March 2005,All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament'swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Reports to the Procurator Fiscal will not necessarily record in every case whether the hotline was the origin of the investigation. Further, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal database will not record whether a case is as a result of a call to the Dumb Dumpers hotline or not. While it would be possible to examine all cases to seeif the report contained any information in relation to the Dumb Dumpers hotline,this would involve disproportionate cost and would not necessarily identify every hotline case in any event.