Chamber and committees

<>Planning applications are determined in accordance with the relevant development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Scottish Planning Policy (2014) paragraph 248 is clear that the review of mineral permissions every 15 years should be used to apply up-to-date operating and environmental standards. As a statement of ministers’ priorities the content of Scottish Planning Policy is a material consideration that carries significant weight.

Decisions on peat extraction are made by individual planning authorities and the number of extant but not fully exploited consents for peat extraction is not held centrally. No estimate of the total carbon emissions or loss of carbon sequestration potential from all existing consents has been undertaken.

However, peat extraction is counted in the Scottish Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2014 data. Whilst this includes peat extraction beyond that used for horticulture, the contribution of peat extraction to Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions was 0.1 MtCO2e; 0.2% of total Scottish emissions in 2014.

<>Scottish Ministers have a general power to intervene by calling in an application for their own determination. In practice though, ministers will exercise this power very sparingly, recognising and respecting the important role of local authorities in making decisions on the future development of their areas.

At this time it is not ministers’ intention to call in this application.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-01192 on 20 July 2016, planning applications are determined in accordance with the relevant development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Scottish Planning Policy (2014) paragraph 248 is clear that the review of mineral permissions every 15 years should be used to apply up-to-date operating and environmental standards. As a statement of ministers’ priorities the content of Scottish Planning Policy is a material consideration that carries significant weight.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-001195 on 20 July 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I met with representatives of Graham's Dairy on 5 December 2014, at which various issues were discussed, including development proposals.

<>I met with representatives of Graham's Dairy on 5 December 2014, at which various issues were discussed, including development proposals.

The Scottish Government carried out an initial assessment of the Section D provisions of Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and considered it unlikely that these would to any appreciable extent restrict the legislation which the Scottish Parliament can pass in the interests of the public and the environment. Since then, it was announced on 29 February 2016 that the European Commission and the Canadian Government have agreed to include a new approach on investment protection and investment dispute settlement, the investor court system in the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

The Scottish Government has carried out an initial assessment of Section D investment protection provisions and has made clear to the UK Government and the European Commission that trade agreements must not adversely affect the delivery of public services, lower standards, or limit the government’s right to regulate in the public interest.

The former Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and the Environment wrote to the UK Government's Secretary of State for Agriculture, Rural Affairs and the Environment about protected food names in the comprehensive economic and trade agreement in September 2015. Scottish Government officials met with trade representatives from the Canadian High Commission in March and May 2015 and had high level discussions on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.