- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 23 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive why retail butchers which offer ready-to-eat products will have to pay the #100 license fee when other establishments which offer similar products are not subject to such a requirement.
Answer
All retailers engaged in the handling of unwrapped raw meat and its subsequent sale, together with ready-to-eat food will require a licence - whether a traditional retail butcher or other retailer dealing in these products.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 23 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the plans to levy a #100 license fee on all retail butchers' shops are final; what the purpose is of the license, and why the fee is being introduced earlier in Scotland than in the rest of the United Kingdom.
Answer
As the Regulations have been laid and approved by the Scottish Parliament, the £100 licence fee will become statutory - as of 2 October 2000.
Licensing has been introduced to improve food safety. The licensing scheme will ensure that certain stringent food hygiene controls are being met by butchers as recommended in the Pennington Group report into the Lanarkshire E.coli O157 outbreak in 1996.
The Regulations will come into effect six months after being laid in the Scottish Parliament; the stipulated Scottish time frame throughout consultation. The Regulations will dictate that the fee - in line with that in England - will subsequently be collected on an annual basis.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 22 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the statement by the Minister for Rural Affairs on 30 March 2000, why Scottish farmers will not have their annual groundwater maintenance charge of #123 waived for the next four years as will be the case in England and Wales.
Answer
It is Executive policy that SEPA should move to full cost recovery in its charging regimes. Charges levied under the Groundwater Regulations have therefore been set as low as possible, consistent with recovery by SEPA of the costs of regulation from polluters.
In Scotland, a considerable amount has already been done to ease the burden of the Groundwater Regulations on the farming community. The annual maintenance charge was waived in the first year of regulation whilst SEPA determined applications. Crofters' Grazing Committees have been encouraged to make single applications for the disposal of spent sheep dip on behalf of their members. In the majority of cases, this means that individual crofters are paying only a small proportion of the total annual maintenance charge.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 9 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-965 by Sarah Boyack on 27 January 2000, what the outcome was of the consultation between officials on the subject of signposting of Wigtown, Scotland's National Book Town, at the junction of the M74 and A75 at Gretna.
Answer
It is clearly not possible to sign every tourist attraction which may be put forward for signposting at the junction of the A74(M) and A75 at Gretna. However, the Solway Coast Heritage Trail is signed at Gretna to direct traffic to tourist attractions along the Solway Coast. I believe that the best way forward is for Wigtown to be advertised in the promotional literature which is produced to support the tourist trail.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 23 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion and how many of the population, in total and broken down by health board area, are affected by vitamin and trace element disorders.
Answer
Vitamin and trace element disorders are relatively uncommon in Scotland. The latest available data derived from the Continuous Morbidity Recording System, indicate that, in 1998, 0.05% of the population - 2,700 individuals - consulted their GPs about such disorders resulting from dietary causes. Disaggregated information, by health board, is not available centrally.
The most common related disorders are iron deficiency anaemia and, to a lesser extent, osteomalacia.
Action to reduce vitamin and trace element nutritional disorders focus on the work being taken forward to improve the population's diet through implementation of the Scottish Diet Action Plan, Eating for Health. We are, in addition, targeting specific action on key groups, such as pregnant women, older people in care and ethnic communities who are considered to be at particular risk.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 23 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive which are the most common vitamin and trace element disorders present within the population.
Answer
I refer to the answer given to question S1W-6489.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 23 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to reduce the number of people who suffer from vitamin and/or trace element disorders so as to decrease the numbers requiring medical attention and hospitalisation.
Answer
I refer to the answer given to question S1W-6489.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 27 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 17 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what is (a) the average time between referral and start of treatment and (b) the maximum waiting time for lung cancer patients in each of the five cancer centres in the last year.
Answer
Cancer is one of the three clinical priorities for the NHS in Scotland. Waiting times for investigation and treatment are a high priority within the Scottish Cancer Group's work programme.
Initial treatment for lung cancer can take place in either an outpatient or inpatient setting. Centrally available information does not identify cases where treatment starts in an outpatient setting.
Information on the time between a patient being placed on the waiting list for treatment for lung cancer and their admission to hospital is available centrally, and the median waiting time for the five main cancer centres, in the year to 31 December 1999, is given in the table.
The Scottish Executive is currently working with the NHS in Scotland to establish national, maximum waiting times, to be delivered by March 2001, in the clinical priorities of cancer, heart disease and mental health.
NHS in Scotland: Median Waiting Time For Hospital Admission For Treatment For Lung Cancer: Year Ended 31 December 1999.
Location of Treatment | Median Wait (Days) |
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary | 6 |
Ninewells Hospital, Dundee | 11 |
Raigmore Hospital, Inverness | 3 |
Western General Hospital, Edinburgh | 7 |
Western Infirmary, Glasgow | 7 |
Source: ISD, Scotland.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 11 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it has made available in order to progress the pilot project which it has established with organisations and producers in Dumfries and Galloway to look at developing viable markets for locally produced goods, and how that funding will be applied.
Answer
As it is still in its planning stages there are no budgets set against this initiative at present. But the pilot project, which will look at developing alternative viable markets for local Dumfries and Galloway produce will be given whatever support is necessary to ensure the Scottish Executive and the local interest groups it will be working with can make meaningful progress.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 11 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to further encourage farmers to diversify into timber production.
Answer
The Woodland Grant Scheme and the Farm Woodland Premium Scheme both offer incentives for farmers to diversify into timber production. Last year over 8,500 hectares were approved for planting under these schemes, more than in any previous year.
