- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 25 July 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what amounts at current prices were paid in government grants in each year since 1997 to meet any annual deficits where the cost of pensions exceeded the amount of contributions made in respect of each of the pay-as-you go pension schemes identified in Public sector pension schemes in Scotland by Audit Scotland.
Answer
Audit Scotlandpublished a report entitled
Public Sector Pension Schemes in Scotland on20 June 2006. The Executive pointed out to Audit Scotland beforethe report was published that, in relation to the NHS and Teachers Schemes iswas inaccurate and (potentially) misleading to present the funding of pensionsas if current contributions by employees and employers directly fund currentpayments.
For these schemes there isno direct relationship between current contributions and current pensionpayments. The funding from the Exchequer through the SPPA reflects the paymentof past contributions.
With regards to the NHS and teachersSchemes, contribution rates are set by Actuaries to fully meet the cost offuture benefits accrued. It follows that both employees and employers paycontributions to meet their future benefits. It would therefore beinappropriate to suggest that the difference between contributions and pensionpayments in any given year resulted in a surplus or deficit requiringgovernment grant for that year.
The police and fire servicesscheme do not involve a pension fund. Rather, current pension liabilities aremet by contributions from current members and Grant Aided Expenditure. Accordingly,contributions are not set at a rate to meet future liabilities, rather they areused to meet current liabilities. Future liabilities will be met from GrantAided Expenditure and employee contributions at the appropriate time.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 July 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how much Single Farm Payment it anticipates will have been made to claimants in respect of “naked acres”, once all payments for 2005-06 have been made; of this, how much will have been in respect of claimants domiciled (a) in Scotland, (b) in the rest of the United Kingdom and (c) overseas; what estimate it has made of payments in the same categories for 2006-07, and whether it has made any assessment of the impact on land values of payments in respect of “naked acres”.
Answer
I am sorry but I am not ableto answer that part of the question dealing with “naked acres”, which Iunderstand to mean land rented from a third party for the sole purpose of claimingthe Single Farm Payment. Farmers are required to declare all the land theyfarm, not simply land supported by subsidy. In addition, the practice ofrenting ground in a seasonal basis, where land parcels are taken each year, butcan be in different locations and of different sizes from year-to-year, is atraditional feature of Scottish farming. SEERAD’s land record system, however,does not track ownership of land or rental arrangements.
On that part of the questionregarding the domiciliary arrangements of Single Farm Payment beneficiaries,the numbers for the 2005 scheme, in total, as at 6 July are as follows:-
| Farm Businesses with a Correspondence Address in:- | Number | Materiality | Value of Payments | Materiality |
| - Scotland | 20,439 | 99.60% | £387,383,394 | 99.51% |
| - Rest of the United Kingdom | 74 | 0.36% | £1,552,733 | 0.40% |
| - Overseas | 8 | 0.04% | £358,833 | 0.09% |
| Totals | 20,521 | 100.00% | £389,294,960 | 100.00% |
Given the nature of theSingle Farm Payment Scheme, I would expect the above distribution to berepeated under the 2006 scheme.
Finally, SEERAD has notconducted any empirical study of the impact of the Single Farm Payment Schemein total on land values. Anecdotal evidence in 2005 from agricultural markets(the traditional marketplace for seasonal grazings) suggested that there wereno significant changes in rental values in that year.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 10 July 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will identify the councils whose council leaders and/or chief officials have suggested that their councils should be merged with others and what steps it has taken to establish whether any such suggestions represent the views of either those councils or their local electorates.
Answer
No Scottish councils have formallyapproached the Scottish Executive with proposals to merge with other councils. However,many councils across Scotland are looking into how they can work more closely togetherand integrate frontline and support services to benefit their communities and serviceusers
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 27 June 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has considered the European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) project to link sites of significant industrial archaeological heritage and whether it is considering developing, or supporting the development of, a Scottish “themed route” comparable with those being developed in Wales, England, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Answer
Historic Scotland is awareof this cultural route. Under development since 2001, it was launched in October2005. Three Scottish anchor points are already identified on this route: DundeeHeritage, New Lanark and the Scottish Mining Museum. These three partners may wish to add other related sitesto the route. Historic Scotland has given advice in the form of suggested sites and themes.Leadership of the route is by the partners and the individual anchor points.
As it is an international digitalroute a single theme would not be purely Scottish but of course a strong Scottishcomponent can be threaded through each one.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 19 June 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-24694 by Peter Peacock on 20 April 2006, whether decisions by education authorities to cap the rolls of secondary schools, to disallow placement requests from households resident in neighbouring local authority areas, are notified to the Executive and, if so, whether it will issue a list of those secondary schools which it knows to be subject to such placement restrictions.
Answer
Such local authority decisionsin relation to individual schools are not required to be notified to the ScottishExecutive.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 June 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what its target date would have been to respond to my letter of 20 December 2005 on the performance of SEERAD officials and requests for a trial marine protection area in Lamlash Bay, Arran; when it expects to answer my letter, in relation to which I issued reminders on 9 March 2006 and 21 April 2006, and whether it will explain the delay in responding, so that I can explain the delay to the constituents who raised these matters with me.
Answer
The target date for respondingto your letter of 20 December was 30 January. I have written to you explaining thatbecause of the extent of the issues raised by the COAST proposals it has not yetbeen possible to provide COAST or you with a substantive response. I have also confirmedthat I expect to write to COAST within a week setting out the way forward and thatI will provide you with a copy of that letter.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 31 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what weighting it expects planning authorities to give to Scottish Planning Policies (SPPs) and Planning Advice Notes (PANs) in assessing planning applications in the period between the issuing of the policy or advice and the subsequent finalisation of updated structure and local plans, in circumstances where the Executive has changed the substance or the emphasis of policy in its newly issued SPPs and PANs and where the change in the substance or emphasis of policy is not considered by planning authorities to be so significant as to require formal alteration of plans currently in force.
Answer
Decisions on planning applicationsare required to be made in accordance with the development plan unless materialconsiderations indicate otherwise. Depending on the circumstances of the case, suchconsiderations can include Scottish Planning Policies (SPP) and Planning AdviceNotes (PAN). It would be for the body determining the application to consider theweight to be given to a new SPP or PAN which was relevant to the case but not yetincluded in the development plan.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 31 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the decisions on 4 May 2006 by the Court of Justice of the European Communities in respect of cases C-290/03 and C-508/03, published on 10 May 2006, have implications for the law on environmental impact assessment in Scotland and whether it will amend the law in this regard through the Planning etc. (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
The Executive is currently consideringthose decisions and any implications they might have for legislation, whether primaryor secondary, or for planning guidance. We will make any amendments as necessaryat the appropriate available opportunity.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-23456 by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 March 2006, to what extent the procedure for public inquiries held by reporters under the Electricity Acts is determined by those set out for inquiries under planning legislation in Scottish Office Development Department Circular 17/1998, Planning and Compulsory Purchase Order Inquiries and Hearings: Procedures and Good Practice; whether this circular will remain in place for the purposes of the Electricity Acts, or whether it intends that changes in procedures provided by the Planning etc. (Scotland) Bill for planning inquiries will be applied by analogy to inquiries held under the Electricity Acts.
Answer
There are no procedure rulesfor public inquiries held under the Electricity Act 1989. For that reasonreporters routinely request in such cases that parties consider whether theywould be prepared to agree to apply by analogy the Town and Country Planning(Inquiries Procedure) (Scotland) Rules 1997 and thus the content of SODDCircular 17/1998 concerning Procedures and Good Practice. Changes in these rulesto deliver the policy intentions underlying the Planning Bill will be thesubject of consultation. Consideration will be given at that stage to whetherthe rules should also cover inquiries held by reporters under legislation otherthan the Planning Acts.
- Asked by: Murray Tosh, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 24 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will identify all wind farm applications which have been granted consent within the area covered by the Glasgow and Clyde Valley Structure Plan, under the powers delegated to ministers by the Electricity Acts, since the publication in September 2003 of the Joint Committee’s proposals for Wind Energy: Preferred Areas and Sensitive Locations, now incorporated within the consolidated structure plan, and whether it will identify those sites granted approval since September 2003 which are not located within the preferred areas indicated in the consolidated structure plan.
Answer
Scottish ministers have grantedconsent for two wind farm developments located within the Glasgow and Clyde ValleyStructure Plan (draft 2006) potential areas for wind energy development. These wereBlacklaw, which is entirely within a potential area for development, and Whitelee,partly within such an area. No other proposals have been granted consent.
