- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 1 July 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how the environmental impact of multiple proposed windfarm developments in a given area should be assessed.
Answer
Advice on how cumulative impacts should be assessed is given in Planning Advice Note 45: Renewable Energy Technologies.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 1 July 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that, in expanding the field sports sector of tourism, biodiversity and other land use interests are protected.
Answer
Scotland’s unrivalled natural beauty is one of the major assets that attracts visitors to choose Scotland as a holiday destination. The protection of these assets is therefore an essential element in our tourism strategy, and in the development of the tourism products that we offer our visitors.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 17 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Community Renewables Initiative will have adequate resources for funding renewable energy installation in new schools.
Answer
The Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative supports a range ofapplicants, including schools, hospitals, community centres and local housinginitiatives. Applications are dealt with on a first-come, first-served basis. Extensive efforts are being made to promote the scheme to local authority clients, we are considering the options for extension of the scheme beyond 2005 as part of the current spending review.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 25 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the farm scale evaluation gives a true indication of any environmental harm caused by Chardon LL mai'e, in light of the conclusions of the recent report of the Westminster Environmental Audit Committee GM Food - Evaluating the field scale trials.
Answer
The Scottish Executive, the Science Review, and the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment(ACRE) are all satisfied that the methods used in the farm scale trials forboth design and analysis were valid and robust. They are the most extensive andthorough evaluations of their kind in the world, and gave a clear picture of the changes in biodiversity caused by different herbicide regimes used on geneticallymodified (GM) and conventional crops, including maize.
ACRE recommended that studies were initiated to considerthe validity of the results in light of the phasing out of Atrazine. Furtheranalysis of the farm scale evaluation (FSE) data has been published in the peerreviewed scientific journal Nature. This work concludes that the banning of Atrazine is unlikely to undermine theconclusions of the FSEs.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 24 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any human feeding studies using GM foods have been carried out and, if so, what the results were.
Answer
I am advised by the FoodStandards Agency that all GM foods aresubject to a rigorous safety assessment before they can be marketed anywhere inthe EU. The safety of all novel foods, including GM foods, is assessed on anEU-wide basis using internationally agreed procedures that are recognised byregulatory authorities world-wide. No human feeding studies have been carriedout under these procedures.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many sites containing (a) active raised bog and (b) degraded raised bog capable of regeneration there are in Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish NaturalHeritage report An inventory of lowland raised bogs in Great Britain (Lindsay, R.A. and Immirzi, P., 1996) identifies 807 raised bog sitesin Scotland. Of these, 281 are identified as supporting areas ofactive bog, and 344 supporting areas of degraded bog capable of regeneration. Itis important to note that the figures for degraded bog capable of regenerationrefer to sites supporting some area of vegetation capable of restoration to bogvegetation. This does not necessarily imply that each site as a whole iscapable of regeneration.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any studies comparing the biodiversity impact of GM crops with organic crops are planned.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is not aware of any planned studies comparing the biodiversity impactof GM crops with organic crops.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the number of ruminant feeding studies there have been by independent researchers using Chardon LL mai'e and the results of such studies.
Answer
A cattle feeding study wascarried out by researchers at Reading University to investigate the effect of T25 (Chardon LL) maizeon ruminants. The study has been completed and the researchers intend to submittheir study to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. The Advisory Committeeon Releases to the Environment (ACRE) will be asked to fully assess the datawhen the peer review process is complete.
The researchers haveconfirmed that the study does not reveal any adverse effects on the health ofruminants fed T25 maize.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the area of (a) active raised bog and (b) degraded raised bog capable of regeneration is included in currently proposed Special Areas for Conservation
Answer
It is estimated that 68% of the active raised bog and 34% of the degraded raised bog habitat in Scotland isincluded in designated candidate Special Areas of Conservation.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ask Scottish Natural Heritage to consider designating Aucheninnes Moss as a Special Area of Conservation, in light of the recent survey report by Richard Lindsay for the Invertebrate Conservation Trust that shows that the area fits the EU Habitats Directive habitat category "degraded raised bog capable of regeneration" and contains areas fitting the priority habitat category "active raised bog".
Answer
Scottish Natural Heritagescientific advice is that the habitat type found at Aucheninnes Moss does notmeet the definition of either “active raised bog” or “degraded raised bogcapable of regeneration”, and that the site therefore does not meet thequalifying criteria for selection as a possible Special Area of Conservation.
