- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 30 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken and proposes to take to tackle social exclusion in Kinlochleven, particularly in relation to the incidence of nuisance and anti-social behaviour.
Answer
Measures to tackle neighbour nuisance and anti-social behaviour were introduced under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, including Anti-social Behaviour Orders, new grounds for eviction for anti-social behaviour and additional powers for the police to seize noise-making equipment. Detailed guidance was issued to local authorities. The Executive's discussion paper, Housing and Anti-social Behaviour - The Way Ahead, published in December 1999 sets out the Executive's proposals for legislative and non-legislative action to tackle nuisance and anti-social behaviour. Comments on that paper are currently being analysed.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by John Home Robertson on 30 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is for the grey and common seal population (a) over each of the last 30 years and (b) each of the next 30 years.
Answer
The estimates of grey seal populations in Scottish waters from 1984-98 shown in the table below are based on annual surveys of breeding colonies in the Outer Hebrides, Inner Hebrides, Orkney, the Isle of May and two English sites. The Scottish population figures have been arrived at by deducting the proportion of the population related to the two English sites. They are a consistent series calculated from a model that derives estimates of pup production from aerial survey counts and a model that estimates the size of the population required to produce these pups. An estimated additional 8,900 animals are associated with breeding sites that are not surveyed annually.
Pup surveys prior to 1984 did not include the Inner Hebrides. For these years, in the table below, the population estimates given are the product of the pup production estimate for the surveyed areas and the mean ratio of total population to pup production for these same areas from 1984 to 1998.
Year | Estimated Scottish Population to the Nearest 500 animals (aged 1 year and over) | | Year | Estimated Scottish population to the Nearest 500 animals (aged 1 year and over) |
1970 | 29,000 | | 1986 | 47,500 |
1971-1973 | No Surveys | | 1987 | 50,500 |
1974 | 32,000 | | 1988 | 54,500 |
1975 | 34,000 | | 1989 | 58,000 |
1976 | 35,500 | | 1990 | 61,500 |
1977 | No Survey | | 1991 | 65,000 |
1978 | 33,500 | | 1992 | 69,000 |
1979 | 36,500 | | 1993 | 73,500 |
1980 | 42,500 | | 1994 | 78,500 |
1981 | 44,000 | | 1995 | 83,500 |
1982 | 44,000 | | 1996 | 89,500 |
1983 | No Survey | | 1997 | 95,000 |
1984 | 41,500 | | 1998 | 101,500 |
1985 | 44,500 | | | |
Predictions about future population size are very difficult to make and are dependent on a number of assumptions. Two alternative predictions for grey seal numbers over the next five years are contained in the report Scientific Advice on Matters Related to the Management of Seal Populations: 1999, a copy of which is held in SPICe. Because of uncertainty about future changes in pup production, it is not meaningful to predict population size any further into the future than this.
Surveys of common seals between 1974 and 1980 were carried out from boats during the breeding season (June/July). Surveys since 1988 were by helicopter using a thermal imaging camera and were carried out during the August moult when the greatest and most consistent numbers of seals are thought to haul out. The numbers in the table below are counts of seals hauled out on land and represent minimum estimates of the population. A significant proportion of common seals will be at sea even during this period and it is therefore much more difficult to be precise about the total population based on these minimum figures.
Year |
1974-1980 (Boat survey) | 1988-1994 (Helicopter) | 1996-1997 (Helicopter) |
Adults Pups | Adults | Adults |
9,328 1,495 | 26,667 | 29,600 |
The increases between boat and helicopter survey results are partly due to the extension of the area surveyed by helicopter (successive surveys have covered larger areas), partly due to the change in methodology (up to twice as many seals may be detected when surveying by helicopter compared with boats), partly due to the different timing of surveys (seals spend more time hauled out during the August moult than during the June/July breeding season), and presumably also partly as a result of the cessation of harvesting, particularly in Shetland and Orkney. At present, we cannot say how the trend in numbers counted at haul-out sites relates to trends in population size.
The total Scottish population cannot be estimated accurately but is currently thought to be between 43,000-52,000 animals. There is insufficient information to allow future predictions of numbers of common seals to be made.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 30 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will extend to all tenant farmers within the crofting counties the rights available to crofters under (a) the present crofting legislation and (b) crofting legislation under consideration.
Answer
No. As I announced in reply to Mike Watson on 19 November, I have closely examined the pros and cons of various proposals for tenant farmer right to buy and came to the conclusion that none are the right way forward.
Specifically, I am not persuaded that the crofter right to buy and the other benefits of crofting tenure should be extended to all tenant farmers in the crofting counties. The substantial costs of this, and in particular the cost of compensation to landlords, are a major factor in that decision.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 30 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any studies have been carried out as to the effect on local traders of bus corridors.
Answer
The Scottish Executive recently commissioned a research project entitled
A Comparative Evaluation of Greenways and Conventional Bus Lanes. This research focuses on bus corridors in Edinburgh and includes a section on Business Frontage Interviews. The project was concluded recently and its findings should be published later in the spring. A copy will be placed in SPICe.
I understand that Glasgow City Council have carried out studies on the effect of bus lanes on the Victoria Road/Gorbals Street bus corridor. This involved a survey of public opinion and before and after surveys of retail unit occupancy.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 28 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many properties are available for let as holiday homes on a commercial basis, for 140 days or more per year, in each local authority area.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 27 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will conduct an investigation into the remuneration levels of management posts in the public sector; whether the highest level of public sector salary should be paid to the First Minister on a pyramidal structure and whether all public positions should be remunerated upon a pay structure which reflects the degree of responsibility undertaken by all other posts.
Answer
There is a very wide range of public sector organisations in Scotland, with very varied functions and responsibilities. This is reflected in a similarly broad range of pay arrangements for management, staff and other public sector appointments. It would therefore be wholly inappropriate, and indeed bad policy and management practice, to attempt to link all senior public sector pay to a single salary point.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 23 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-2406 by Sarah Boyack on 26 January 2000, why details of the contact between itself and the Minister of State at the Scotland Office are "not normally released" and why it will not detail the contact between the parties on this matter.
Answer
Under the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information, information will be disclosed unless the harm likely to arise from disclosure would outweigh the public interest in making the information available. In this case, the public interest in disclosure is outweighed by the harm which would be caused to the frankness and candour of internal discussion, including discussions between the Scottish Executive and the UK Government.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, before declaring any area a National Park, it will consult the people resident within that area by holding a local referendum to ascertain whether they agree to their area being so designated and whether it will hold such a referendum once passage of the draft National Parks (Scotland) Bill is complete and any secondary legislation has been published.
Answer
The draft National Parks (Scotland) Bill does not provide for the holding of a referendum. It provides for the involvement of local communities in considering the detailed arrangements for a National Park. The consultation on the Bill ended on 3 March, and comments received are currently being considered.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 21 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is of the cost of implementing the procedure set out in section 2 of the draft National Parks (Scotland) Bill in relation to (a) the proposed Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park and (b) the proposed Cairngorms National Park.
Answer
The procedure set out in section 2 will include many variables. These include the Reporter's time, local authority input, costs of a PLI, if necessary and publication of the report by Scottish Ministers amongst others. Our best estimates are that this type of expenditure, for both areas, will be in the region of £100,000.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 March 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 21 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider holding public debates on the model of the recent "Business in the Chamber" event on topics such as health, education, older people and social and economic development in the Highlands and Islands, whether it will ensure that the participants in such debates are from a wide cross-section of interested parties as well as special interest groups, and whether it will investigate the possibility of using the Parliament chamber for such events.
Answer
The Executive already has a range of consultative mechanisms in place but is willing to consider suitable mechanisms by which consultation processes can be supplemented or improved to generate the widest debate possible, involving a cross-section of interested parties. Subject to the approval of the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body, this could include the use of the Scottish Parliament chamber if considered appropriate.
