Chamber and committees

The report by SNH, as reporting body under section 3 of the National Parks (Scotland) Act, was submitted to Scottish Ministers on 19 March. We have considered the report carefully. It has been a very thorough piece of work, involving extensive efforts to ensure a high level of participation. We are satisfied that the reporter's conclusions reflect a balanced assessment of the views of consultees and the statutory criteria for designation of a National Park. We are therefore broadly accepting the reporter's conclusions, subject to one or two adjustments. On boundaries the most important of these is that we see the inclusion of the area of west Glen Dochart, including Tyndrum and Crianlarich, as providing an important gateway to the northern end of the park.We are therefore publishing today a draft designation order for consultation, as required under section 6 of the National Parks (Scotland) Act. This is being made available widely, and copies have been available to the Parliament's Reference Centre. The consultation closes on 21 September, after which the draft order will be amended as required in the light of comments, before the draft order is submitted for approval of the Scottish Parliament in the autumn.

There is no specific duty of care on public bodies and statutory undertakers in relation to SSSIs, although SSSIs are subject to protection through the provisions of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, planning law and policy and certain other provisions. Any SSSIs which are also Natura 2000 sites receive additional protection to ensure that features of European interest are safeguarded.The Executive will consider what further protections may be desirable in the light of consultation responses to the policy statement The Nature of Scotland.

The issue of harassment or disturbance will be considered in response to the consultation on the policy statement, The Nature of Scotland. SNH have not at this stage been asked to advise and their response to the policy statement has not been received.

The Scottish Ministers will consider the way forward when we have analysed responses to consultation on The Nature of Scotland.

The culling policy being applied during the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak makes special provision to safeguard rare breeds.

Work on this matter is proceeding. A study group comprising the network owners Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy, the Scottish Renewables Forum, the energy regulator Ofgem, as well as the Scottish Executive and the DTI, is examining in detail the capacity of the Scottish grid to connect increasing amounts of renewable generation. Parallel to this, we have commissioned an update of a major 1993 report on Scotland's potential renewable resource and its broad location. Once these studies have been completed, we will have a much clearer view of what action might need to be taken.

The Scottish Executive is currently discussing options for regulating the private security industry, including stewards in nightclubs, with representatives of the police, local authorities and the private security industry. Wider public consultation will take place in due course once these discussions have been concluded. The Executive will then consider what action is needed.

We are aware of the speculation that our present FMD outbreak originated from meat products brought into the UK from abroad.The Scottish Executive is participating in the interdepartmental discussions which are examining our existing procedures for the inspection and control of meat and meat products and detection of illegal imports. These discussions cover both the commercial import of products and the import of products by individuals for their own use, and their aim is to improve controls where possible and to establish effective communication by the various enforcement agencies.

The closure of livestock markets since the commencement of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak has disrupted the Meat and Livestock Commission's normal collection of information on liveweight prices paid to producers. However deadweight prices are provided in table A. Supermarket prices are not routinely collected but average retail prices calculated from figures supplied by the MLC covering various beef, lamb and pork products are given in table B.Table APence per KG deadweight

	Cattle (Scotland)	Sheep (GB)	Pigs (GB)
Week Ending
17/03/01	172.34	190	102.52
24/03/01	170.55	193.3	98.83
31/03/01	170.23	192.8	94.17
07/04/01	170.23	201.5	94.83
14/04/01	172.44	219.5	94.83
21/04/01	174.16	227.7	95.54

Table BAverage Retail Prices (pence per kg)

	Beef (Scotland)	Lamb (Scotland)	Pork (Scotland
Week Ending
17/03/01	918	866	503
24/03/01	916	850	502
31/03/01	913	861	502
07/04/01	913	857	506
14/04/01	915	857	508
21/04/01	915	838	503

The need for legislation to protect soils and the adequacy of current powers exercised by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency will be kept under review. Any decisions on this will await the outcome of a scoping study which we have commissioned from the University of Stirling on the requirement for a soil protection strategy in Scotland.