- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what efforts and progress it is making to trace the 400 cattle sold from the Roslin Institute to farms in the UK which might be carrying the "Theileria annulata" parasite.
Answer
Tracing of cattle which have moved off Roslin Institute farms over the past three years is being carried out by the State Veterinary Service. To date investigations have revealed that 217 of the 400 cattle are no longer alive. Of the remainder, movements have been recorded to farms in both Scotland and England. Tracing these animals will be completed soon. Thereafter all farms where these cattle are located will be visited to carry out full investigations and to collect blood samples for testing.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 26 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to restrict the import of supposedly GM free crop seeds from countries in which separation distances between GM crops and GM free crops are less than is the case in the United Kingdom.
Answer
Under EC and international agreements seed imported from non-EC countries is subject to equivalent standards of field inspection and certification. These arrangements do not include separation distances between GM crops and non-GM crops. Spot checks of imported seeds to ensure that they do not contain GM material were introduced on 1 June.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 26 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it remains satisfied that a voluntary code of practice is a sufficient means of ensuring minimum separation distances between GM and non-GM crops or whether it has plans to introduce legislation in this regard.
Answer
The recent incident involving conventional seed accidentally containing a small proportion of GM seed has highlighted the question of separation distances between GM and other crops. The circumstances of the contamination are still being investigated but the evidence which emerges will form an important element of the UK review of separation distances which was announced on 8 June. The review, which aims to report in August, will consider whether existing arrangements are satisfactory but at present we have no plans to legislate in this area.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 26 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to publish advice to consumers wishing to avoid food containing ingredients which may have been produced from crops grown from conventional Advanta rapeseed contaminated with GM rapeseed.
Answer
Oil from the affected crop planted and harvested in 1999 will have been mixed with oil from other sources before being widely dispersed. In these circumstances there is no obvious way now to be able to identify for consumers those products which might contain minimal traces of GM derived oil. Scottish Ministers are fully committed to receiving rigorous testing and safety analysis of new food products derived through biotechnology.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what its understanding is of when it was first discovered that conventional Advanta rapeseed had been contaminated with GM rapeseed.
Answer
We understand that this problem first came to light on 3 April when laboratory tests in Germany identified low levels of GM rapeseed in conventional rapeseed stocks. Advanta informed UK Government officials of this on 17 April.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in the light of its acknowledgement on page 25 of A Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture that the difficulties in re-establishing export markets have held back the recovery in cattle prices, it will give higher priority to regaining lost markets.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer I gave to question S1W-7734.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 22 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is towards the provision of police cover in the small towns and villages of rural Scotland.
Answer
The rural and urban parts of Scotland are given equal priority by the eight Scottish police forces, all of which have a mix of communities to police. The existing formula for distributing resources to individual forces makes an allowance for the additional operational costs of policing sparsely populated areas.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish all of the information which it holds from Advanta UK on the contamination of conventional rapeseed with genetically modified rapeseed.
Answer
We have received information on contaminated seed lot numbers which will help farmers confirm whether they have sown a contaminated crop but that is principally a matter between Advanta and farmers. As the farmers are the innocent party in this matter I do not think any public interest would be served by publishing any information we have obtained from Advanta.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is still the case that only one abattoir in Scotland can deal with beef for exporting purposes and, if so, what steps it is taking to ensure that more abattoirs can deal with beef for exporting purposes.
Answer
I can confirm that only one plant in Scotland is approved to export beef under the provisions of the Date-Based Export Scheme.
At present the plant is able to deal with the current volume of exports. Additional participation in the scheme is a matter for the commercial judgement of each abattoir company. Efforts will continue to be made to persuade the European Commission and other member states to make changes to the scheme to help encourage increased participation in the beef export market.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken by Quality Meat Scotland to help regain lost beef export markets.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer I gave to question S1W-7734.
