- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 14 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will undertake a survey of all suppliers of bivalue molluscs to assess the extent of any burden placed on them by existing food safety regulations and to investigate the scope for streamlining the system to reduce bureaucracy while maintaining adequate protection of the public interest.
Answer
TheFood Standards Agency is the UK Competent Authority under European law for foodsafety legislation. The current EU Food Hygiene Regulations have applied in theUK since 1 January 2006 with the objective to ensurea high level of consumer protection with regard to food safety. Prior to theimplementation of the regulations a full public consultation involving theshellfish industry took place. Any flexibilities that were available wereadopted to minimise burden on industry at that time.
The agencyin Scotland has and continues to work in partnership with the shellfishindustry to ensure the proportionate implementation of the official controlmonitoring programmes for shellfish that are a requirement of Community Law.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 September 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 1 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will seek a temporary derogation from the EU birds directive to allow the sale of resident population greylag geese shot in the open season.
Answer
I am considering allpossible options for future management of the greylag goose population which couldinclude assessment of the potential benefits of securing a derogation from the EuropeanCommission under the EU Birds Directive to permit the sale of greylag goose carcasses.The survey of native greylag geese to be undertaken next year will inform considerationof all options.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 18 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will renew the Eilean Ban Trust’s lease on Eilean Ban when the current lease runs out and, if so, in renewing the lease, whether it will provide the trust with long-term security to ensure a sustainable future for the island for the benefit of the local community.
Answer
The current leaseto the Eilean Ban Trust is due to end on 18 October 2015, unless the trust decidesto terminate earlier. It is too early to determine future leasing arrangements.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 20 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what investigation the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has undertaken into an outbreak of sewage fungus in the River Polly; how many times this issue has been reported in the past, and what the cause is.
Answer
As this is an operationalmatter for the Scottish EnvironmentProtection Agency, I have askedthe Chief Executive to reply to your enquiry directly.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 21 August 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it would support changes to crofting law to allow for the election of members of the Crofters Commission.
Answer
Scottishministers will consider the future role and constitution of the Crofters Commissiononce they have received the report of the Committee of Inquiry on Crofting, ledby Professor Mark Shucksmith. The committee is expected to report early in 2008
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 July 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 1 August 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider offering grant assistance to individuals or communities unable to access broadband to help them establish and maintain satellite broadband connections.
Answer
We are considering a varietyof technology-neutral options to solve remaining broadband access issues. Thisincludes examining the use of alternative technologies such as satellite aswell as different funding mechanisms such as grant assistance.
We recently consulted withthe industry and the public on these options and now intend to announce our wayforward in the coming months.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 30 July 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide funding and clinical support for the use of insulin pump therapy for all those with type 1 diabetes whose multiple daily injections are failing.
Answer
This is one of the keyactions in the Diabetes Action Plan. NHS boards are expected to find thenecessary funding and clinical support from within their existing resources,and the Scottish Government will monitor the progress in meeting this keyaction of the plan.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 June 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 23 July 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how much public expenditure there has been on agricultural biotechnology research, including GM research, in each year since 2000, showing funding allocated to (a) the Rowatt Institute, (b) the Scottish Crop Research Institute, (c) the Scottish Agricultural College and (d) any other Scottish research institute, university or body, and what information it has on the amount of private expenditure allocated to such research over the same period.
Answer
The amount of fundingallocated by the Scottish Executive in the past (April 2000 to March 2006) tothe area of agricultural biotechnology research and carried out by the Rowettand Scottish Crop Research Institutes, SAC and other Scottish researchorganisations was:
| Year | RRI | SCRI | SAC | Other Scottish organisation |
| 2000-01 | 1,714,000 | 4,577,000 | 718,000 | 2,137,000 |
| 2001-02 | 1,210,000 | 5,412,000 | 667,000 | 1,222,000 |
| 2002-03 | 1,284,000 | 5,878,000 | 819,000 | 1,111,000 |
| 2003-04 | 1,278,000 | 6,080,000 | 753,000 | 2,483,000 |
| 2004-05 | 480,000 | 5,915,000 | 128,000 | 1,717,000 |
| 2005-06 | 393,000 | 5,812,000 | 49,000 | 2,272,000 |
Since 1 April 2006strategic research in Environment, Biology and Agriculture has been funded bythe Scottish Executive through 4 programmes of work as set out in StrategicResearch for SEERAD 2005-2010: Environment, Biology and Agriculture. From April2006 it has not been possible to extract precise data on the costs ofagricultural biotechnology related research from the funding allocated to eachprogramme, since the funding provided by the Scottish Executive is now focusedon outcomes and it is up to the individual organisations to decide the approachused to achieve these. However, full details of the work contained within the 4programmes are available at:
www.scotland.gov.uk/srg.The Biotechnology andBiological Sciences Research Council also provide funding to Scottish researchorganisations for agricultural biotechnology related research. Information onthis can be found at:
www.bbsrc.ac.uk.The funding figures forprivate expenditure allocated to agricultural biotechnology research are notcollected centrally. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) publishes figuresfor overall UK research and development spend, including by private companies,on an annual basis (latest figures are for 2003) and these are available on:
www.statistics.gov.uk/.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 July 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 19 July 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that the Wester Loch Ewe area has an adequate water supply so that no new developments in the area will be constrained by lack of water.
Answer
This is an operationalmatter for Scottish Water, and I have asked the Chief Executive to replydirectly to your enquiry.
- Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 14 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were arrested for drug and drink driving offences in the Highlands last summer.
Answer
Information on the number ofarrests made by the police is not held centrally, only the number of crimes recorded.There were 683 crimes involving drug and/or drink driving in the Highlands recordedby the police in 2005-06.
