Chamber and committees

The pilot Emergency Medical Retrieval Service (EMRS) to support emergency health care in remote and rural Scotland will begin 1 June 2008. The pilot will run for 18 months along the West Coast of Scotland and will be accompanied by rigorous evaluation. The findings of the evaluation will inform the decision on the future development of the service beyond the pilot period in other remote and rural areas. threa

The Emergency Medical Retrieval Service (EMRS) exists to provide consultant based on site resuscitation and safe transfer for patients with life threatening injuries and illness in remote and rural hospitals.

Patients can expect quicker, safer and more effective transfer to specialist services in the event of illness or injury.

The Scottish Government has underwritten the full cost of the pilot projects for the Emergency Medical Retrieval Service.

The area covered includes five health boards: Highland, Western Isles, Ayrshire and Arran, Dumfries and Galloway and remote areas of Tayside.

The Scottish population of capercaillie is estimated every six years as part of the Statutory Conservation Agencies and RSPB Annual Breeding Bird Scheme programme (SCARABBS). In 1998-99, the population was estimated at 1,073 individuals. In 2003-04, the population was estimated at 1980 individuals.

The national survey data does not provide a reliable basis for estimating regional populations. However, numbers of lekking capercaillie are counted every year and the results by area are provided in the table below. It should be noted that prior to 2002, effort was targeted at locating leks rather than doing repeat surveys of known leks.

Year	Black Isle and East Ross		Moray, Speyside and Inverness		Kincardine and Upper Deeside
	Leks	Males	Leks	Males	Leks	Males
1999	9	21	23	77	0	0
2000	9	14	24	71	8	22
2001	8	17	14	44	0	0
2002	11	23	36	106	19	39
2003	11	22	33	123	19	32
2004	11	29	39	151	19	35
2005	11	27	45	150	20	48
2006	11	18	51	136	20	40
2007	11	26	51	141	20	40

 

Year	Tayside and Loch Lomond		Glen Affric		Total
	Leks	Males	Leks	Males	Leks	Males
1999	0	0	4	2	36	100
2000	8	12	5	2	54	121
2001	2	5	0	0	24	66
2002	7	11	0	0	73	179
2003	7	6	5	1	75	184
2004	6	7	5	0	80	222
2005	7	9	2	0	85	234
2006	9	12	2	0	93	206
2007	8	13	2	0	92	220

 

The table below provides information for projects on which we have data:

Project	1999-2000 (£)	2000-01 (£)	2001-02 (£)	2002-03 (£)	2003-04 (£)
UK Biodiversity Species Action Plan	55,696	400	25,362	98,179	30,000
Capercaillie Woodland Challenge Fund			680,753
EC LIFE Project Urgent Conservation Management for Scottish Capercaillie			1,643,443	721,917	565,671
Species Action Framework

 

Project	2004-05 (£)	2005-06 (£)	2006-07 (£)	2007-08 (£)
UK Biodiversity Species Action Plan	43,355	40,600	118,071	45,595
Capercaillie Woodland Challenge Fund
EC LIFE Project Urgent Conservation Management for Scottish Capercaillie	574,365	557,093	252,132
Species Action Framework				£121,300

 

The Scottish Government does not hold comprehensive information relating to expenditure on other projects or programmes carried out by private and public sector bodies and land managers which are intended to benefit capercaillie.

Local connection isnot a statutory criterion for social housing allocation in Scotland. Social landlords are required by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 to admit anyone over 16 to their housing listwho lives in their area or has one of a list of reasons for wanting to move to thearea. Guidance on the 2001 act makes clear that applicants for housing should notbe debarred because they have no local connection with an area, although local connectionmight be a factor in determining priority.

Scottish homelessness legislation allows local connection to be takeninto account in determining which local authority has a duty towards a homeless household. The Homelessness(Scotland) Act 2003 introduced powers for Scottishministers to modify the relevant provisions. The Scottish Government will discussthe exercise of these powers with local authorities, following concerns raised duringa consultation exercise carried out by the previous administration and also duringthe Homelessness 2012 Support Project sponsored bythe Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers and the Scottish Government.

The Homelessness etc (Scotland) Act 2003 contains a target to abolish the current distinction between homeless households assessed as having a priority need foraccommodation and other homeless households by 2012. Achievement of the2012 target is included as an indicator within the national performance frameworkagreed with COSLA.

A wide range of actionsis required to deliver on this target. The Scottish Government will take accountof the report of the Homelessness Monitoring Group and the findingsof the Homelessness 2012 Support Project sponsored bythe Scottish Government and the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officersin working with local authorities and other delivery partners towards the target.

The deal which I negotiated atthe December Fisheries Council benefited the west coast nephrops fishery in a numberof ways. In particular on days at sea not only was the headline cut for much of the fleet reduced from 25% to 10% but I negotiated the possibility for Scotlandto design its own arrangements outwith the EU’s days at sea regime. Under our ConservationCredits Scheme fishermen will be rewarded for steps they take to reduce cod mortalityand discards. I also successfully resisted attempts by the Commission to imposea mandatory requirement for further technical measures which would have had a significantimpact on all west coast nephrops vessels.

As I explained to Parliamenton 17 January, the Commission did not agree at the December Council to grant anadditional 28 days to the derogated west coast prawn fishing fleet. My officialspursued this matter with the Commission throughout the negotiations. During theDecember Council, the Commission finally explained the reasoning behind the proposalwhich was agreed by the Council in December 2006. In particular, they explainedthat their criteria had been that any fleets which, in the West of Scotland, hadcaught more than 4,000 cod individuals or discarded more than 10,000 cod individualswould face days at sea cuts for 2007. The derogatednephrops fleet (4.a.ii/8.1.d gear) did not fall under both these thresholds andwas as a result added to those fleets which faced cuts. The UK asked theCommission for copies of the papers showing where these west of Scotland thresholdswere established, but Commission officials explained that they were agreed verbally.

The lack of transparency in thisdecision was particularly disappointing.

The Land Reform (Scotland) Act2003 establishes the right of responsible access by members of the public. Representativesof rural businesses and land managers, including livestock farmers, were involvedin the development of the legislation and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. They continue to be fully involved in the implementationof access rights through the National Access Forum which is able to consider anyrelevant issues highlighted by land managers, recreational users or others. TheNational Farmers Union has distributed a Public Access to Farmland brochure to provide a brief introduction for farmers, crofters and growerson their rights and responsibilities.