- 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: 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: 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: Thursday, 01 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to grant Angus Council the necessary special borrowing consent to fund the replacement of the A92 bridge over the South Esk at Montrose.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has no plans to provide Angus Council with special borrowing consent to fund the replacement of the A92 bridge over the South Esk at Montrose. It is for Angus Council to determine its spending priorities from within its overall capital expenditure resources.
The level of resources for local authority capital expenditure will be considered as part of the Spending Review.
- 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 19 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has to prevent the closures of village police stations such as that in the Angus village of Letham and whether it plans to exercise any such powers in this instance.
Answer
Decisions on the deployment of officers and other resources, including the viability of police stations, are operational matters for Chief Constables. Neither the Joint Police Board nor Scottish Ministers have powers to intervene.
- 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 Peter Peacock on 19 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether Angus Council Education Authority has supplied it with a copy of its asset management plan and whether it will place a copy in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
Answer
There is no requirement for education authorities to submit asset management plans to the Scottish Executive, and no such plan has been received from Angus Council's Education Department.
- 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 16 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it had in place before 18 May 2000 to inform farmers of the contamination of conventional Advanta rapeseeds with GM rapeseeds and whether these plans have been modified since this date.
Answer
The Scottish Executive was not informed of the contaminated seed until 15 May. My officials discussed the problem with the National Farmers' Union of Scotland shortly thereafter, and have continued to liaise closely with it.
- 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 16 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether current legislation on liability is sufficient in cases where (a) conventional crop seed is contaminated with GM crop seed; (b) conventional crops are cross-pollinated by GM crops and (c) conventional crops are contaminated with genetic material from GM crops as a result of other forms of gene flow.
Answer
The question of liability is a matter of civil law and will depend on the specific circumstances in individual cases.
- 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 16 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, prior to being made aware of the contamination of conventional Advanta rapeseed with genetically modified seed, it had been aware of similar incidents involving crop seeds imported into other European Union member states and, if so, when it became aware of each such incident.
Answer
One of my officials attended a meeting of the EU Seed Certification Agencies in Italy on 4 May, when he heard that Greece had a problem with GM contaminated cotton seed imported from the USA.
- 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 16 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received any information from parties other than Advanta UK on the contamination of conventional Advanta rapeseed with genetically modifed rapeseed and, if so, when each such party first made such information available.
Answer
Since 15 May, in addition to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, I have received information from the Food Standards Agency, the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, the Advisory Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs, the National Farmers Union of Scotland, the Scottish Crop Research Institute and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
