Chamber and committees

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.

The amounts paid out bySEERAD under the main Common Agricultural Policy Schemes in 2002 and brokendown by region are as follows:

	£ million
North East Scotland	81.49
East Scotland	131.35
South Western Scotland	84.86
Highlands and Islands	68.70

 

Summary details of the CAPpayments made are published in the:

Economic Report on ScottishAgriculture (published June 2003) and the Annual Report of the Administrationof Common Agricultural Policy schemes in Scotland (published August 2003).

Copies are available on the Scottish Executive website.

The underlying objectives of the CAP reform agreement link closely with our own strategic objectives forScottish agriculture as set out in A Forward Strategy for ScottishAgriculture. These also underpin many of the commitments set out in therural section of A Partnership for a Better Scotland. The reform agreementtherefore will help deliver many of these commitments. Two of the maincommitments in the partnership document are:

seek reform of the CAP tosecure improvements for Scotland and to shift subsidies away from merelysupporting production to recognising the economic, social and environmentalcontribution that agriculture makes to rural development, and

implement land management contractsto deliver reformed CAP support which takes account of the diversity ofScottish agriculture and its economic, social and environmental impact.

The agreement itself verylargely achieves the first of these commitments - through decoupling. Theflexibilities available in the agreement also open up possibilities foradvancing the second commitment.

The Scottish Executive is undertaking a wide-ranging consultation on the implementation of theCAP reform and the flexibilities that are available. The consultation will lastthree months from 6 October 2003 to 6 January 2004, and decisions will be taken inFebruary-March 2004.

We continue to work with theUK Government, the regulator Ofgem, and the industry to ensure that the grid isstrengthened in order to fully realise Scotland’s renewable energy potential. Both Scottish andSouthern Energy and Scottish Power have recently announced that they areundertaking the survey work necessary to support a significant strengthening of the transmission network in their respective areas.

The information requested, for Scotland only, is given in the following tables:

2000	Live Sheep
Country of Destination	Breeding	Fattening	Slaughter
Belgium	155	0	0
France	1,180	0	0
Germany	92	0	0
Ireland (Rep)	6	0	0
Netherlands	44	0	0
Switzerland	13	0	0
Total	1490	0	0

 

2001	Live Sheep
Country of Destination	Breeding	Fattening	Slaughter
France	30	0	0
Ireland (Rep)	0	0	700
Total	30	0	700

 

2002	LIVE Sheep
Country of Destination	Breeding	Fattening	Slaughter
Belgium	9	0	0
France	30	5,890	0
Germany	1	0	0
Ireland (Rep)	58	0	0
Netherlands	34	0	0
Total	132	5,890	0

 

The above figures relate toconsignments of Scottish sheep which were certified for export directly abroad.Information is not available for Scottish consignments which transited anAssembly Centre outwith Scotland and were subsequently certified for export ascombined consignments with sheep from other parts of GB.

 

2000	Live Pigs
Country of Destination	Breeding	Fattening	Slaughter
Belgium	1,075	0	0
Denmark	83	0	0
France	2,000	0	0
Germany	4,589	0	0
Italy	2,654	0	0
Netherlands	2,004	0	0
Spain	5,513	0	0
Total	17,918	0	0

 

2001	Live Pigs
Country of Destination	Breeding	Fattening	Slaughter
Germany	2,679	0	0
Netherlands	545	0	0
Spain	400	0	0
Total	3,624	0	0

 

2002	Live Pigs
Country of Destination	Breeding	Fattening	Slaughter
Germany	1,360	0	0
Greece	22	0	0
Italy	451	0	0
Netherlands	933	0	0
Total	2,766	0	0

 

An application to the Scottish ministers for consent under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 to construct a wind farm entails a wide ranging consultation process involving a large number of statutory bodies as well as other organisations and members of the public. It is entirely a matter for the local communities, both collectively and individually, how they engage in this process.

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.