Chamber and committees

SNH is aware of local concerns and will undertake monitoring of the vegetation at Cairnsmore National Nature Reserve/Dromore Farm to assess when or if numbers of stock can be increased. The retention of half of the mid hill heft ensures that the stock numbers can be built up from stock that already know the hill ground.

SNH retain nearly 500 breeding ewes at Dromore. The high hill heft remains in place. The stock currently being off-wintered will be returned to the hill in the spring.

SNH has taken account of local expertise. Local concerns were expressed about SNH’s original intention to remove the stock completely from the mid hill heft at Dromore Farm. A meeting was held with those concerned and further expert advice was sought from bodies such as the Heather Trust, the National Sheep Association and direct experience of a manager of hefted stock within the Scottish Agricultural College. SNH decided to remove half the sheep from the mid hill heft and to off-winter the remaining stock.

The report by Scotland’s Moorland Forum Principles of Moorland Management suggests that where heather is being overgrazed then a reduction or even temporary removal of stock for a period of years is a way forward.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-20286 on 17 November 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The visitscotland.com website is a highly popular source of information on the rich diversity of experiences which Scotland has to offer its residents and visitors. During the year to date, over 9.5 million people have used it in this way; some of these visitors have used it to identify accommodation and then contact the accommodation provider direct to make the booking. The website also provides an easy to use way of booking accommodation online; so far this year around 143,000 such bookings have been taken with a value of around £17.5 million. More than half of these bookings have gone to small businesses.

The visitscotland.com website - the website for Visit Scotland - provides a range of information on visiting Scotland and the reference to the website in Visit Scotland publications is in line with standard practice for both commercial and non-commercial organisations in providing details of how to find more information. As such, there are no state aid issues.

Enhanced External Counter Pulsation Therapy (EECP) is not currently available in Scotland. It is for NHS boards to decide whether to offer the procedure.

The Interventional Procedures Programme of National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is currently considering EECP and will issue a consultation document shortly about its safety and efficacy. Their final report is expected in spring 2006. This will not require NHS boards to introduce EECP, but will specify the appropriate level of service and safety if they do choose to provide it.

The Executive is committed to ensuring that individuals with complex additional support needs wherever possible have the same opportunities to access further and higher education as other students.

The global tourism market is rapidly increasing its propensity to use the internet to make holiday bookings online and often at the last minute. visitscotland.com is designed to attract an increasing share of these bookings, with over £40 million worth of business generated, much of it for small hotels and B&Bs, since its inception.

Visitscotland.com is the trading name of e-tourism Ltd, a joint venture with the private sector in which VisitScotland has a 25% stake. It is an increasingly effective shop window for Scotland, promoting a wide variety of Scottish tourism products and events to the global market. The visitscotland.com business plan always anticipated that it would run at a loss for the first few years, as is the case for many new businesses, especially new dotcom ventures. The management of visitscotland.com remain confident that it is on track to break even in the next two years and achieve profitability thereafter.

Approximately £18 million willbe raised to fund the Scottish Beef Calf Scheme. The scheme is in its first yearand the administrative costs will be largely dependent on the number and complexityof claims submitted: costs of £0.5 million are currently anticipated. Administrationcosts are met from the administration budget of the Scottish Executive and not from the monies raised from the Single Farm Payment. The whole sumraised will be paid to farmers and the payments will be modulated as are all PillarI payments. Actual payments will depend onthe numbers of animals claimed but are estimated at £70 per head for the first 10eligible calves and £35 per head for each subsequent eligible calf.