Chamber and committees

The Executive supports the principle of community benefit as ex-gratia payments butwe believe these are best handled by community representatives. We therefore have no plans to set a tariff for wind farm developments.

The guiding principle to our policies on promoting renewable energy developments is that the land use planning system should play its full part in the process. Within this framework, positive provision is being made for wind farm developments whilst ensuring that designated areas, species habitats and the historic heritage are protected from inappropriate development and that any disturbance to local communities is minimised.

In our view this provides a robust framework, which ensures that our renewable resources can be fully exploited towards meeting our climate change obligations whilst safeguarding sites of particular local, national and international value.

We are not persuaded that national co-ordination of the process would contributeto these objectives.

Consents to release GM material as part of the farm-scale evaluations are held by the biotechnology company concerned. It is their responsibility to ensure that the conditions of consent are adhered to, whether the land is farmed by the owner or a tenant. As a condition of the consent under which GM oil seed rape has been grown as part of the FSE programme, conventional oil seed rape must not be grown on the same field for the following two years. This period may be reviewed by the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) for future consents in the light of emerging research findings. Notwithstanding the specific conditions in relation to an FSE consent, however, there remains a general requirement not to market products containing GMOs without an appropriate consent.

The total amounts spent on the Organic Aid Scheme in 2001-02 and 2002-03 are detailed in the table:

Scheme	Year	Amount
Organic Aid Scheme	2001-02	£4,943,000
	2002-03	£5,513,000

It is for ministers in individual administrations to decide their priorities, therefore schemes, which operate in Scotland, differ from those that operate in the rest of the UK. Information on spending on comparable schemes in England and Wales is not held centrally.

The overall budget for agri-environment schemes is not allocated in advance to the individual schemes which are demand led.Details of the estimated amounts available for new and existing agri-environment schemes, including the Rural Stewardship Scheme, are available in Tables 8.1 and 8.3 of the Scottish Rural Development Plan, which can be found on the Scottish Executive Website at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/environment/srdpv3-g-16.asp.

The overall budget for agri-environment schemes is not allocated in advance to the individual schemes, which are demand led.Details of the estimated amounts available for new and existing agri-environment schemes, including the Organic Aid Scheme are available in Tables 8.1 and 8.3 of the Scottish Rural Development Plan, which can be found on the Scottish Executive Website at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/environment/srdpv3-g-16.asp.

The budget allocations for agri-environment schemes (including the Organic Aid Scheme) are programmed in the Scottish Rural Development Plan for the period 2003-06. It will be for Scottish ministers to decide on the allocation of resources in light of the priorities established by the partnership agreement.Support is also provided to the organic sector through SEERADs' Processing and Marketing Grant Schemes (PMG) and the Marketing Development Scheme (MDS) Since May 2001, almost £4 million has been awarded to support the processing and marketing of organic produce through these schemes.

The expenditure on support measures targeted at Scotland's less favoured areas in 1999-2000 was £59.3 million and in 2000-01 was £63.1 million. The Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowances scheme (HLCAs) accounted for the total expenditure in 1999-2000 whereas in 2000-01 the spend was split between that scheme (£10.5 million) and its successor, the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (£52.6 million).

One hundred and forty one responses have been received in response to the consultation on the draft Nature Conservation (Scotland) Bill. Of this total (a) 128 are broadly supportive and (b) seven are opposed in principle.The remaining six respondents did not comment on the proposals in the Bill.

The Scottish Executive will introduce the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Bill to the Scottish Parliament later this year, as announced by the First Minister in his statement on 28 May.