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-05448

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 27 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps could be taken to reduce the level of toxic contaminants in farmed salmon.

The Food Standards Agency,and industry, regularly monitor the levels of toxic contaminants found infarmed salmon. Both report that trace elements continue to fall and that theyremain well below tolerances set by relevant international health agencies,such as the European Commission and WHO. The Scottish Executive, through theStrategic Framework for Scottish Aquaculture, will explore with relevant bodieshow trace contaminant levels can be reduced still further.

Question reference: S2W-05449

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 27 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will encourage producers to take steps to reduce the level of toxic contaminants in farmed salmon.

Question reference: S2W-05427

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 22 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what levels of (a) dioxins, (b) polychlorinated biphenols, (c) toxaphene and (d) dieldrin were found in (i) farmed salmon, (ii) wild salmon and (iii) fish farming feedstuffs sampled by government agencies between 1990 and 2003.

Question reference: S2W-05439

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 21 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it intends to take to ensure that conditions are improved and enforced on pig farms in Scotland following the report in December 2003 by Advocates for Animals of unacceptable conditions in which pigs were being kept on Scotpigs' farms.

Question reference: S2W-05440

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 21 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it plans to take following Advocates for Animals recent investigation into Scottish pet shops referring to a range of unacceptable practices, including a lack of guidance by local authorities, breaches of pet shop licence conditions and aspects of the pet trade being unregulated.

Question reference: S2W-05209

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what action has been taken to ensure that the general public, in addition to farmers and crofters, is encouraged and enabled to contribute to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform consultation process.

The Scottish Executive has undertaken a wide-ranging consultation exercise to encourage debateon CAP reform. The Executive launched the three-month consultation with a conferencein Edinburgh on 6 October. The consultation paper was sent to awide range of stakeholders, including representatives of civic society. Theconsultation paper, along with background information and supporting analysis,is publicly available on the Scottish Executive website:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/about/ERADA/AgriPol/00017653/Economic.aspx

Twelve public meetings havebeen held throughout Scotland to provide information on the CAP reform agreementand the consultation process. These were advertised nationally and locally, andwere open to the general public.

A series of regionalstakeholder discussion groups have also taken place, with numbers kept ataround 20 people representing a cross-section of regional interests. Thesemeetings were organised on behalf of the Scottish Executive by rural partnerships andcommunity planning partnerships, and participants included representatives fromvoluntary organisations.

Question reference: S2W-05208

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what data it has showing how funding would be redistributed across regions and agricultural sectors under single payments based on hybrids of area-based and historic approaches following Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform.

The Scottish Executive has undertaken modelling into the redistributive effect of differentapproaches to calculating the single farm payment. This shows how funding wouldbe redistributed at regional level under the historic approach compared with anumber of hybrid area-based models. The results of the modelling are publiclyavailable on the Executive’s CAP Reform website:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/about/ERADA/AgriPol/00017653/Economic.aspx

Question reference: S2W-05207

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what modelling has been done on the impact, under the reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), of basing the single payment on hybrids of area-based and historic approaches and how the results of any such modelling can be publicly accessed in order to inform responses to the second question on the single payment scheme in the consultation paper CAP Reform: Opportunities for Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-04702

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 16 December 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive for which habitats Scottish Natural Heritage is the lead partner under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and how much was spent on the management of each such habitat in the last year for which figures are available.

Question reference: S2O-00897

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 4 December 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it is making in determining the extent of illegal fishing outside European Union quotas and regulations.

The ScottishFisheries Protection Agency devotes significant resources to the monitoring,control and enforcement of fisheries related legislation. However, illegalactivity, by its very nature is clandestine and, therefore, difficult toquantify. Nonetheless, variations in the patterns of suspected illegal landingsare gauged from intelligence received by the agency through the regularmonitoring of the movements and landing arrangements of fishing vessels and thereaction of fishermen when their vessels and catches are the subject ofinspection.

The agency’sresources are utilised with the objective of deterring and detecting suchillegal activity.