Chamber and committees

Where possible animals identified as offspring of BSE cases are traced and removed from the human food chain. Officials of the Food Standards Agency, the Scottish Executive and the Ministry of Agriculture are jointly considering whether, in this particular case, the offspring could have been removed at an earlier stage.

The Food Standards Agency has advised me that the EU ASP Working Group requested further information on the variation of toxin levels in individual parts of the scallop. A second, more detailed scientific report addressing this issue has been prepared and will be scrutinised by the working group in early April. The reports were prepared for the EU Working Group and they will decide on the circulation.Additionally work is being progressed by the Agency to ensure a rigorous enforcement regime, and an adequate monitoring programme can be developed which will guarantee consumer safety should a tiered approach be acceptable in scientific terms.

No payments can be made to members of the Scottish Transport Group pension schemes before the Scottish Transport Group is wound up.

An Agriculture Council was scheduled for that week and it was thought that Mr Finnie would attend. The meeting was cancelled but because of an administrative oversight the information which had been entered on the department's database was not amended. Steps have now been taken to prevent similar errors occuring in the future. Information on ministerial attendance at EU meetings provided to the Parliament's Reference Centre has been amended.

We are in regular contact with the UK Government on a range of issues.

Neither the governing European Directive 90/220/EEC nor the Environmental Protection Act 1990 require or provide a basis for consultation on any aspect of a proposed release.The recently adopted package of revisions to EU 90/220/EEC makes increased provision for public consultation. In the coming months the Scottish Executive will be seeking the views of stakeholders as to how the implementation of the revised Directive should be taken forward.

The Scottish Executive is required to operate within European and UK Legislation on the deliberate release of genetically modified crops. Under Directive 90/220/EEC consent can only be refused where scientific evidence is available to suggest that the release would cause harm to human health or the environment. The legislation does not permit an application to be rejected solely in response to local opposition. A decision on that basis would be illegal.

The current statutory notification period is determined in the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The Scottish Executive is aware however of the limited opportunity which this allows for public consideration and comment. Accordingly, assurances have been sought and gained from the biotechnology companies which will provide a longer notification period for this spring's farm evaluations. The exact period of notification has not yet been determined.

The "local community", as applied to the Local Facilities Strand of the Sports Facilities Programme, is determined through sportscotland's supply/demand model and is the appropriate catchment for a particular facility type. This varies from facility to facility and is affected by location, geography and transportation.Other strands of the programme take account of "communities of interest". For example, the National and Regional strands focus on discrete sporting groups, including disabled persons.

Following my announcement on 13 December, the Executive wrote to all Education Authorities, Further Education colleges and heads of other centres on 18 December inviting them to submit requests for review by 10 January. By 19 January, the Appeals Review team had received 3,974 returns.In order to ensure that no appeals were excluded solely because of their late submission, the Appeals Review team accepted requests for review as late as 29 January when subject teams began their work. In a few very exceptional cases, requests have been accepted beyond this date. However, at this stage in the process it is no longer possible for the team to accept more new cases.As at 21 February, 4,216 cases were included in the appeals review process, and a breakdown of these cases by Education Authority is shown in the table.

Appeals Review 2000Numbers of cases by education authority

ABERDEEN CITY	86
ABERDEENSHIRE	210
ANGUS	100
ARGYLL & BUTE	81
CLACKMANNAN	14
DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY	238
DUNDEE CITY	94
EAST AYRSHIRE	136
EAST DUNBARTONSHIRE	117
EAST LOTHIAN	67
EAST RENFREWSHIRE	100
CITY OF EDINBURGH	276
EILEAN SIAR	47
FALKIRK	77
FIFE	271
GLASGOW CITY	253
HIGHLAND	139
INVERCLYDE	69
MIDLOTHIAN	68
MORAY	67
NORTH AYRSHIRE	96
NORTH LANARKSHIRE	184
ORKNEY ISLANDS	19
PERTH & KINROSS	66
RENFREWSHIRE	137
SCOTTISH BORDERS	163
SHETLAND ISLANDS	3
SOUTH AYRSHIRE	106
SOUTH LANARKSHIRE	147
STIRLING	72
WEST DUNBARTON	43
WEST LOTHIAN	92
TOTAL	3,638
FE COLLEGES	71
INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS	507
TOTAL CASES	4,216