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-10207

Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 17 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated development value is of land currently used for the Livestock Improvement Scheme administered by the Crofters Commission.

Question reference: S2W-10331

Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 17 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in respect of the maintenance of a bull hire scheme for crofters.

Crofting groups with a bull hire contract which started in 2003 will have a bull under the Bull Hire Scheme for the 2005 breeding season. The Crofters Commission has advised crofting groups who had hires that ended in 2004 that there will be interim arrangements put in place to tide them over until the proposed replacement scheme is ready. Details of these interim arrangements should be available soon.

We are aiming to have the new cattle improvement scheme ready in time to ensure that eligible crofting groups can apply in good time for support for cattle improvement in the 2006 breeding season. The consultant employed to develop the new scheme has nearly completed that work and the proposals will be discussed with a focus group of experts and representatives of crofting interests next month.

Question reference: S2W-10330

Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 September 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 17 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when the outcome of the review of the Bull Hire Scheme will be made public.

Question reference: S2W-09538

Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 28 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, if Her Majesty's Government (HMG) has made any proposals to store waste from nuclear submarine reactors at any site in Scotland, it will make representations to HMG regarding the social and economic impact of such proposals.

The Ministry of Defence hasnot made any decisions on sites. The proposals received from industry are onlyoutline at this stage. Although the criteria for the final selection of a sitehas not yet been developed the Executive would expect the socio-economicimpacts to be taken fully into consideration.

Following the publication ofLancaster University’s report on 6 May 2004 aboutthe consultation on the outline proposals, the MoD is considering the report’srecommendations and is consulting with other government departments, includingthe Executive, on its response.

Question reference: S2W-09536

Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 28 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with the Ministry of Defence regarding the impact of possible storage of submarines at (a) Aultbea, (b) Dounreay, (c) Nigg and (d) Ardoyne Point.

Question reference: S2W-09537

Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 28 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on other sites, not referred to in Project ISOLUS Consultation on Outline Proposals (CIOP): Final Report, that the Ministry of Defence is considering using for the storage of nuclear waste.

Question reference: S2W-09215

Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 16 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will remove the 50% council tax rebate on second homes.

Question reference: S2W-08799

Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 18 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the feasibility study to be carried out into the future of the Bull Hire Scheme will consider the (a) introduction of a replacement grant scheme and (b) refining of the current scheme, in line with recommendations in the Scottish Agricultural College's Report on the Review of the Crofters Commission Livestock Improvement Schemes to make the scheme compliant with EU state aid rules and best value.

We have chosen to continue to invest in support for cattle improvement in the crofting counties and are looking with stakeholders at a range of options.

Any future support measures must bring measurable improvements, give the taxpayer value for money and comply with EU state aids rules, in particular the Community Guidelines for State Aid in the agricultural Sector. It is our view that in order to get approval of a new scheme for state aid purposes the support to crofters should take the form of a grant. This makes it transparent how much support is being given, provides a mechanism for linking support with measurable improvement and enables us to deliver the assistance in a manner that complies with the guidelines.

We would have refined the existing scheme to deliver measurable improvement as suggested in the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) report if we had thought it feasible to do so. However, we could only have done so if there were no on-going subsidy to crofters within the scheme and thus no state aid. The cost of hires in that circumstance would be extremely high and more than we believe crofters would be prepared to pay. Furthermore, many of the costs we would need to recoup are fixed costs so if demand were to drop fees would inevitably increase even further.

We do intend to ensure that any new scheme will deliver genuine and measurable improvements in the quality of stock. A number of the SAC recommendations on what is required to deliver better quality and better value for money will therefore be taken on board. A grant scheme need not take the form envisaged in the SAC report and such an approach is not what we currently intend. Payment of assistance through grant does not rule out features of the existing scheme such as supply of bulls from a stud facility on hire or provision of facilities for over wintering of stock. The crucial issue is that any service provided by government must be on a full cost recovery basis in the first instance.However, it may be possible to partially offset some of these costs by grant payments. This is precisely the kind of issue which we are currently discussing bilaterally and in focus groups with interested parties.

Question reference: S2W-08369

Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 15 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive which parts of the Livestock Improvement Scheme did not comply with state aid rules.

It is not individual parts of the Livestock Improvement Schemes but rather the schemes as a whole which causeconcerns in respect of compliance with state aid rules. For the reasons why theycause those concerns I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-34908on 28 March 2003. 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/search_wa.

Question reference: S2W-08394

Asked by: John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 15 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will place a copy of the legal advice it received in regard to the Livestock Improvement Scheme, referred to by the Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Affairs during the members' business debate on 19 May 2004, in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.