Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S2W-26319

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 13 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has evaluated the effectiveness of the Public Sector Energy Efficiency initiative and, if so, what conclusions have been reached.

We are currently undertakingpost project evaluation of a selection of the local authority projects funded underthe Central Energy Efficiency Fund. A formal evaluation of the effectiveness of the scheme has not yet been undertaken as a number of these projects are still atan early stage. We are currently discussing the scope and requirements for an evaluationof the scheme which we intend to initiate in this financial year.

Question reference: S2W-26312

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 13 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider extending the scope of the Central Energy Efficiency Fund to cover other publicly funded bodies, including Scotland’s universities and colleges.

Question reference: S2W-26314

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 13 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the Central Energy Efficiency Fund has been applied for by each eligible public body, shown also as a percentage of the value of the fund.

The total amount of the CentralEnergy Efficiency Fund that has been applied for by each eligible public body, shownalso as a percentage of the value of the fund is detailed in the answer toquestion S2W-26313 on 13 June 2006.

All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S2W-25843

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 8 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the new funding arrangements for Scottish Enterprise will have on the current and future budgets of intermediate technology institutes.

In making additional resourcesavailable to Scottish Enterprise, I have stressed that the revised budget shouldhave regard to ministerial priorities and the continuing delivery of PartnershipAgreement commitments. I have also made it clear that ministers strongly supportthe intermediate technology institutes and that they should have the opportunityto deliver. Detailed decisions on relevant budgets are a matter for Scottish Enterprise.

Question reference: S2W-26259

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 5 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of appeals by farmers and crofters under the EU agricultural subsidies appeals procedures found in favour of the applicant in each year since the introduction of the procedure, broken down by area covered by each SEERAD area office.

The EU Agricultural SubsidiesAppeals procedure became operational in November 2000. The information requestedis set out as follows by year of decision. In addition to cases where the panelupheld the appeal it includes cases where the appeal was resolved in favour of theproducer prior to the panel review.

Two further appeals from Galashielsand Elgin were upheld this year by the Scottish Land Court at Stage 3.

% of Upheld Appeals

Year of Decision	Area Office	Stage 1	Stage 2
2001	Ayr	14%	100%
	Benbecula	20%	0%
	Dumfries	0%
	Elgin	50%
	Galashiels	20%	0%
	Hamilton	0%	0%
	Inverness	35%	0%
	Inverurie	30%	0%
	Kirkwall	50%
	Lairg
	Lerwick	33%	0%
	Oban	33%	0%
	Perth	11%	0%
	Portree	100%
	Stornoway	0%
	Thurso
	Average % of Totals	25%	11%

Year of Decision	Area Office	Stage 1	Stage 2
2002	Ayr	64%	66%
	Benbecula	0%
	Dumfries	56%	33%
	Elgin	30%	50%
	Galashiels	60%	50%
	Hamilton	58%	0%
	Inverness	40%	0%
	Inverurie	52%	0%
	Kirkwall	30%	50%
	Lairg	0%
	Lerwick	60%	100%
	Oban	44%	0%
	Perth	46%	0%
	Portree	0%
	Stornoway
	Thurso	44%
	Average % of Totals	39%	32%

Year of Decision	Area Office	Stage 1	Stage 2
2003	Ayr	33%	0%
	Benbecula	0%
	Dumfries	25%	37%
	Elgin	20%	0%
	Galashiels	41%	14%
	Hamilton	6%	0%
	Inverness	22%	0%
	Inverurie	30%	0%
	Kirkwall	50%	0%
	Lairg	100%
	Lerwick	11%
	Oban	33%	0%
	Perth	36%	0%
	Portree	0%	0%
	Stornoway	33%
	Thurso	20%	0%
	Average % of Totals	29%	4%

Year of Decision	Area Office	Stage 1	Stage 2
2004	Ayr	42%	0%
	Benbecula	33%
	Dumfries	33%
	Elgin
	Galashiels	7%	0%
	Hamilton	40%	0%
	Inverness	22%	33%
	Inverurie	37%	0%
	Kirkwall	0%	0%
	Lairg	0%	0%
	Lerwick	0%	0%
	Oban	5%	0%
	Perth	9%	20%
	Portree	0%
	Stornoway	0%
	Thurso	16%	0%
	Average % of Totals	16%	5%

Year of Decision	Area Office	Stage 1	Stage 2
2005	Ayr	7%	0%
	Benbecula	6%
	Dumfries	2%	0%
	Elgin	7%	0%
	Galashiels	4%	0%
	Hamilton	8%	0%
	Inverness	14%	0%
	Inverurie	6%	0%
	Kirkwall	0%	0%
	Lairg	13%	0%
	Lerwick	7%	0%
	Oban	15%	0%
	Perth	2%	0%
	Portree	12%
	Stornoway	20%
	Thurso	8%	0%
	Average % of Totals	8%	0%

Question reference: S2W-26252

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 5 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many sales notes in respect of direct sale fish have been submitted under the the Registration of Fish Sellers and Buyers and Designation of Auction Sites (Scotland) Regulations 2005 since the regulations came into force and, of these, what percentage related to landings from under-10-metre vessels.

Question reference: S2W-26256

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 5 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what average time was taken for (a) Stage 1 and (b) Stage 2 of the EU agricultural subsidies appeals procedure in each year since its introduction, broken down by area covered by each SEERAD area office.

The EU Agricultural SubsidiesAppeals Prodedure became operational in November 2000. The information requestedis set out as follows and shows the average days from submission to final decisionby year of hearing. There was a large volume of appeals received in 2002 and 2003(and again in 2005) which resulted in a backlog building up. The cumulative effectof this resulted in us taking longer to process cases than we would have liked.

I would however expect the averageresolution time to decrease noticeably in the medium to longer term as the numberof appeals against decisions in the 8 subsidy schemes which were replaced by theSingle Farm Payment Scheme decline.

Average number of days for anappeal to be heard from submission to decision.

Year of Decision	Area Office	Stage 1	Stage 2
2001	Ayr	115	69
	Benbecula	111	120
	Dumfries	203
	Elgin	81
	Galashiels	279	90
	Hamilton	78	124
	Inverness	105	36
	Inverurie	164	195
	Kirkwall	86
	Lairg
	Lerwick	70	87
	Oban	99	79
	Perth	121	64
	Portree
	Stornoway	80
	Thurso

Year of Decision	Area Office	Stage 1	Stage 2
2002	Ayr	158	276
	Benbecula	286
	Dumfries	161	436
	Elgin	182	88
	Galashiels	139	75
	Hamilton	116	110
	Inverness	168	108
	Inverurie	147	95
	Kirkwall	164	101
	Lairg	208
	Lerwick	149	76
	Oban	201
	Perth	153	76
	Portree	235
	Stornoway
	Thurso	117

Year of Decision	Area Office	Stage 1	Stage 2
2003	Ayr	292	170
	Benbecula	303
	Dumfries	283	160
	Elgin	301	257
	Galashiels	290	120
	Hamilton	268	204
	Inverness	273	246
	Inverurie	296	118
	Kirkwall	320	153
	Lairg	288
	Lerwick	303
	Oban	299	221
	Perth	276	242
	Portree	261	160
	Stornoway	383
	Thurso	249	225

Year of Decision	Area Office	Stage 1	Stage 2
2004	Ayr	216
	Benbecula	225
	Dumfries	233
	Elgin
	Galashiels	239	176
	Hamilton	207	165
	Inverness	241	228
	Inverurie	257	316
	Kirkwall	246	345
	Lairg	301
	Lerwick	223
	Oban	213	296
	Perth	243	173
	Portree	220
	Stornoway
	Thurso	227

Year of Decision	Area Office	Stage 1	Stage 2
2005	Ayr	178	262
	Benbecula	181
	Dumfries	158
	Elgin	221
	Galashiels	149	254
	Hamilton	173	271
	Inverness	160
	Inverurie	158	247
	Kirkwall	159	306
	Lairg	276
	Lerwick	190	131
	Oban	223
	Perth	155
	Portree	100
	Stornoway	112
	Thurso	126

Question reference: S2W-26257

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 5 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many appeals by farmers and crofters under the EU agricultural subsidies appeals procedure are currently being processed, broken down by area covered by each SEERAD area office.

The EU Agricultural SubsidiesAppeals procedure became operational in November 2000. The information requestedis set out as follows and shows the number of cases which are in the process. Thefigures include all outstanding Stage 1 and Stage 2 appeals. A further four casesare awaiting a Stage 3 Scottish Land Court hearing.

Area Office	No. of Appeals
Ayr	33
Benbecula	3
Dumfries	26
Elgin	7
Galashiels	23
Hamilton	14
Inverness	16
Inverurie	58
Kirkwall	5
Lairg	5
Lerwick	6
Oban	7
Perth	29
Portree	1
Stornoway	2
Thurso	11
Totals	246

Question reference: S2W-26254

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 5 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fish landings were made in Scotland by under-10-metre vessels in (a) 2004 and (b) 2005.

The exact information requestedis not available as under-10-metre vessels do not have to complete a log sheet foreach voyage and often submit a composite landings record covering several voyages.

The available information heldon the fisheries data base can identify the number of arrivals at port made by under-10-metrevessels, but each arrival may not necessarily constitute a landing, as catches (particularlycrabs and lobsters) are often stored at sea, and catches from several voyages maybe landed together.

The available information isgiven as follows for under-10-metre vessels.

2004	2005 (provisional)
47,280 arrivals	38,433 arrivals
19,073 landings records	18,316 landings records

Question reference: S2W-26253

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 5 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of Scottish fish quota stocks it estimates were landed by under-10-metre vessels in (a) 2004 and (b) 2005.

Quota stocks are allocated toUK Producer organisations on an annual basis, whereas the under-10-metre vesselswhich are not in Producer Organisations are set monthly catch limits by the FisheriesAdministrations. Monitoring of quota stocks and setting of under-10-metre monthlylimits is done at a UK level and no distinction is made between under-10-metrevessels based in Scotland and those based elsewhere in the UK.

In 2004 and 2005 under-10-metrevessels not in Producer Organisations accounted for the following percentages oflandings of the following¹ quota stocks.

Quota Stock	2004	2005
West Coast Nephrops	13.42%	12.82%
North Sea Nephrops	5.08%	5.72%
North Sea Cod	2.72%	1.23%
North Sea Haddock	0.14%	0.22%

Note: 1. Under-10-metre in Scotland mostlyfish for Nephrops or for non-quota stocks such as crabs, lobsters and scallops.The quota stocks shown above are the main ones in which the Scottish under-10-metrefleet have an interest. The main whitefish stocks are targeted by larger offshorevessels and the very large pelagic stocks e.g. mackerel, herring and bluewhiting are targeted almost exclusively by a small number of very large vessels.