Chamber and committees

In determining a section 36application, ministers must consider the characteristics, location andpotential impact of the proposal. Whilst the views of the relevant planningauthority carry considerable weight, ministers must have regard to the all theother representations received. An application can be refused consent for anyone of a number of reasons. These include unacceptable adverse impacts thatcannot be mitigated on the natural or cultural heritage, or on for instancecertain aviation and radar services; unacceptable loss of amenity to thoseliving in the locality; and incompatibility with government energy policy.

The Waste Incineration (Scotland)Regulations 2003 implement the Waste Incineration Directive through theexisting Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) regime. In the Executive’sview, the PPC regime does not extend to domestic activities and, consequently,small waste oil burners used to heat homes do not require to comply with theWaste Incineration (Scotland) Regulations. However, non-domestic activities,including non-commercial activities, fall within the scope of the PPC regimeand, accordingly, require to comply with the provisions of the 2003 Regulations.It is, of course, ultimately for the courts to interpret the provisions of regulations.

My officials have had regular discussions with representatives of Scottish butchers regarding the implementation of the Animal By-Products (Scotland) Regulations 2003.

the Scottish Federation of Meat Traders’ Associations was invited to comment duringthe consultation exercise on these regulations, conducted last year. Officials metwith the federation’s office bearers as recently as 3 February this year todiscuss enforcement practices and related issues.

In rural Grampian, local field marketing under the broadband for scotland initiative has helped with the very recent triggering of the Banff and the Turriff exchanges. Nine other exchanges have recorded significant increases in registrations following recent field marketing activities. Around 30 more field marketing visits are planned in the area for the remainder of this financial year. If all 43 of the exchanges that have been set a trigger level by BT are enabled as a result of these activities, coverage in rural Grampian will rise from 13.8 % to 91%.

Thee-business demo centre in Huntly and the mobile demo unit also help to adviseand stimulate demand for broadband in this area, with over 300 workshop attendees in the mobile unit over the past year at the 13 locations it hasserved in rural Grampian.

For remoter areas where there is little commercial prospect of a mass-market service, the Executive is considering more direct measures to assist communities to access an affordable solution. These will be announced in due course. My officials also liaise regularly with Scottish Enterprise Grampian officials, and are briefed on the progress of other local broadband initiatives such as the wireless pilotin Deeside, the powerline trial in Stonehaven and the Building Buchan New Beginnings project.

There are no plans to amendthe existing legislation regarding responsibility for dealing with materialillegally disposed of on private land. Section 59 of the EnvironmentalProtection Act 1990 provides waste authorities with the power to remove wastefrom private land in order to prevent pollution or harm to human health.

The AntisocialBehaviour etc. (Scotland) Bill does address fly-tipping. Section49 of the Bill proposes powers for local authorities, the Scottish EnvironmentProtection Agency and police officers to issue fixed penalty notices forfly-tipping offences. Section 52 and Schedule 2 propose doubling the maximumfine available in summary proceedings for fly-tipping offences to £40,000.

Although the Scottish Executive provides funding to the Scottish Fly-tipping Forum to support its work,it is independent of the Scottish Executive. It is for the Forum, whichis chaired by Keep Scotland Beautiful, to decide when and in what form to makeits conclusions public.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-5145 on 22 January 2004.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/search_wa.

The Executive has notundertaken research into the efficiency and safety of small waste oil burners.Primary responsibility for ensuring that incinerators comply with the WasteIncineration (Scotland) Regulations 2003 lies with operators and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). SEPA would only authorise theiruse if they complied fully with the regulations.

Following comprehensiveconsultation with industry, it was decided to transpose the Waste IncinerationDirective through the existing pollution prevention and control (PPC) regime. TheWaste Incineration (Scotland) Regulations 2003 implement the directive byamending the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2000. ThePPC regime does not extend to domestic activities and, consequently, small wasteoil burners used to heat homes do not require to comply with the WasteIncineration (Scotland) Regulations.