Chamber and committees

Support is available directly though the Food Processing Marketing and Co-operation Grant Scheme towards the construction of new facilities, the upgrading of existing facilities, and the purchase of plant and equipment. Support can also be available through this scheme to assist an abattoir business to work with producers and processors to develop new products and markets.

The proposed new charging system Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) will also set aside £10 million in GB each year to provide reduced MHS inspection charges for plants assessed to be economically vulnerable, i.e. those with low throughputs which will include remote and island slaughterhouses.

Support is available through the Food Processing Marketing and Co-operation Grant Scheme towards the construction of new facilities, the upgrading of existing facilities, and the purchase of plant and equipment.

The Scottish Government recognises that Uig Pier is an important lifeline transport link, supporting lifeline ferry services operated by CalMac Ferries Ltd to Tarbert on Harris and Lochmaddy on North Uist.

The Scottish Government has no plans to provide financial support for the upgrading of Uig Pier. As part of the local government settlement for the years 2008-09 to 2010-11, the Scottish Executive removed the ring-fencing on a number of funding streams, including Piers and Harbours Grants, to allow local authorities greater flexibility in determining their own local spending priorities. Accordingly, it would be for Highland Council, as owners of Uig Pier, to fund such a project from the resources made available to them under the local government settlement and any other funding that is available to them from their own or other sources.

No such discussions between Scottish Government officials and Highland Council and other stakeholders have taken place.

It would be for the relevant local community representatives to seek their own legal advice about the process that would be required for them to acquire ownership of a particular pier. If local community representatives were to pursue ownership of a particular pier, they would have to secure their own funding for associated legal costs.

It may be that a Scottish airport could be persuaded to seek BIP status if it was satisfied that the likely volume of trade justified the cost of providing the necessary facilities. If the Scottish aquaculture industry trade organisations can build such a case I would be happy to support it.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has operated management schemes for Mull, Skye and Lochaber, in connection with the sea eagle re-introduction programme. The Skye and Lochaber scheme continues until 2011. I am aware of the concerns expressed by some farmers and crofters about losses of stock due to sea eagle predation and have asked SNH to provide me with advice on the matter. I will write to the member as soon as an assessment of that advice has been completed and a copy will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 46677).

Payments under the 2008 Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) are scheduled to commence issuing in January 2009. They will follow the issue of payments under the 2008 Single Farm Payment Scheme (SFPS), which are on schedule to commence on 1 December 2008. This is the first permitted date under EU legislation. Both schemes are subject to rigorous EU-prescribed eligibility checks. Principal amongst them, and by far the most complex, is the check involving the use of individual fields. Checks are required to ensure that the land is not claimed twice by a single applicant under the same scheme, or under two or more schemes where that is incompatible with the scheme rules, or by more than one applicant. These checks are carried out on some 464,000 fields held on the field register. They are made just before the payment calculation process, and can only be performed when all the scheme data is captured on the system.

Before any LFASS payment can be made, there is an EU requirement that all field inspections must have been completed. There is no corresponding requirement for the SFPS. LFASS inspections are on track to be completed by 31 December 2008.

It is estimated that the 2008 SFPS will be worth around £460 million, with over £200 million going to the Less Favoured Area (LFA). Of that, around £72 million will be paid to farmers and crofters in the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) area alone. The HIE area covers much of the most fragile parts of the LFA. This compares with an LFASS budget of £61 million, around £24 million of which is destined for the HIE area.

Priority is thus given to the early issue of the SFPS payments, as this will provide a faster and greater benefit both to farmers and crofters in the LFA and to the wider Industry. LFASS payments will issue as soon as possible thereafter.

Under the current timetable, the 2009 LFASS payments are scheduled to issue from January 2010. However, my officials will continue to explore whether those payments can be brought forward without putting the SFPS payments at risk.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-16510 on 9 October 2008. 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/webapp/wa.search.