Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has no evidence to suggest that extra pressure will be placed on other parts of the judicial system as business that would previously have been heard by honorary sheriffs will continue to be heard.

The efficient disposal of business in Scotland’s courts is a matter for the Lord President and the efficient disposal of business in individual sheriffdoms is a matter for the relevant sheriff principal. The Courts Reform (Scotland) Bill will provide sheriffs principal with a wider range of ways for local business demand to be met than are currently available including summary sheriffs and specialist judiciary.

The Scottish Government recognises the contribution that honorary sheriffs make in rural and island areas. However, given the type of cases that are dealt with by honorary sheriff, we do not foresee any issues regarding a loss of expertise, especially considering that this business will be heard, in future, by fully qualified sheriffs and/or summary sheriffs.

The proposed regulations are yet to be finalised. Compostable carrier bags will be included in the proposed charging scheme, as the purpose is to encourage people to use fewer bags and promote re-use, rather than switching to different materials.

There is potential for compostable carrier bags to help boost engagement with food waste collections by providing low cost food caddy liners, but only in certain restricted circumstances where local authorities and reprocessors agree that the specific compostable bags can be handled with food waste without increasing contamination. We are, therefore, exploring scope to facilitate this through the scheme in dialogue with retailers.

Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) staff work to implement the woodland creation objectives of the Scottish Forestry Strategy, the FCS Corporate Plan and the recommendations of the Woodland Expansion Advisory Group.

FCS conservancy staff are required to facilitate and encourage appropriate new woodland planting. This is done by working directly with landowners who are interested in woodland planting, and by working with other organisations, for example, local authorities to help ensure that regional forestry strategies clearly communicate the opportunities for woodland creation in each area.

The Scottish Government is also working closely with representatives from the forestry industry to ensure the next Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) is well designed to deliver key woodland creation targets. In developing the next SRDP, the Forestry Commission has also been working closely with the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division to reduce the complexity of the scheme and improve the level of support provided to applicants.

New planting must adhere to the latest forestry standards, including taking into account best practice to reduce the spread of diseases and maintaining open ground where this is most appropriate from a wider ecosystem perspective.

The Forestry Commission will publish a 50 year forecast of potential softwood availability from Scotland’s forests by the end of May 2014. The forecast will account for various scenarios of levels of restocking and new planting. The findings of the forecast will provide an indication of the long term potential timber production from Scotland’s productive forests. The Scottish Timber Markets Impact Group will report on the findings of the forecast shortly after its publication.

The Scottish Government is working closely with representatives from the forestry industry to ensure the next Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) is well designed to help deliver the woodland creation target of 100,000 hectares, over the decade between 2012 and 2022.

We are also working to minimise the impact on new planting during the transition to the next SRDP. Part of this process has been for Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) to re-open for new Rural Priorities forestry applications including woodland creation. Re-opening allows FCS to continue to consider new proposals for planting in 2015 and they expect to be able to support all suitable applications during 2014.

In addition, a FCS woodland creation planning grant is encouraging applicants to continue to develop projects for new woodlands which can be submitted under the next SRDP, when it opens in 2015.

Within the 100,000 hectare target, the Scottish Government would like to see a broad range of woodland types created. We would anticipate that most of these woodlands will contain productive stands which produce both timber and woodfuel in the longer term. The Scottish Government recognises Scotland’s timber processing industry is vital to the economy of our rural areas and is dependent upon quality softwood timber from conifer forests. Therefore FCS has been asked to seek to deliver up to 60% of the woodland creation target through productive conifers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-18700 on 18 December 2013. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.