- Asked by: Phil Gallie, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 05 April 2004
-
Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 20 April 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will oppose proposals by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to repatriate regional structural funding, given the statement in the speech by the First Minister on 23 March 2004 to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities that structural fund programmes have shown the added value of the regional administration of EU policy and funding.
Answer
The Scottish model of regionalpartnerships has added value to the delivery of current and previous structuralfund programmes. It has encouraged consensus among partners about how best to deliversustainable economic development that tackles problems ranging from peripheralityto urban deprivation.
Although there will continueto be a need to address such problems in Scotland post 2006, it is clear that the accession countries faceconsiderably greater challenges. The Scottish Executive supports the UK Government’spolicy, as outlined in their proposals for an EU Framework for Devolved RegionalPolicy, that future structural funds should be concentrated on these poorermember states. The Scottish Executive is liaising closely with the UK Governmentto ensure that Scottish interests are taken into account as the debate on the futureof the Structural Funds for the 2007-13 period progresses.
- Asked by: Phil Gallie, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 18 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many fixed penalty notices for anti-social behaviour have been issued in each local authority area.
Answer
The Antisocial Behaviouretc. (Scotland) Bill, published on 30 October, includes provisionto give police powers to issue a fixed penalty notice for a range of antisocialoffences.
Fixed penalty notices arecurrently available for litter and, since 22 October 2003,dog fouling offences. However, information is not held centrally on numbers ofnotices issued for these offences.
- Asked by: Phil Gallie, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what running costs are associated with satellite monitoring equipment for fishing vessels and who will be responsible for the various elements of such costs.
Answer
Running costs relateessentially to the costs of required transmission reports. It is estimatedthese are likely to be between £250 and £500 per annum, depending on whether avessel has to report hourly (as required if fishing in Norwegian waters) or twohourly.
It is intended thattransmission costs are met by industry, with the department meeting the costsof purchasing and installing on vessels terminals which comply with agreedspecifications.
- Asked by: Phil Gallie, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many fishing vessels of 18 to 24 metres in length will be required to fit satellite monitoring equipment.
Answer
Around 170.
- Asked by: Phil Gallie, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average cost is of fitting satellite monitoring equipment to fishing vessels below 24 metres in length.
Answer
Costs are likely to varydepending on individual vessel circumstances. However it is estimated that the averagecosts of purchasing and installing terminals on board vessels will be in therange £2,500 to £3,000.
- Asked by: Phil Gallie, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 December 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what grants will be made available for fishing vessel owners to fit satellite monitoring equipment; what the criteria will be for receiving such grants, and what the value of such grants will be.
Answer
In December 2002 the Councilof Ministers decided that satellite monitoring for Community fishing vesselsover 24 metres should be extended, first to vessels over 18 metres from 1 January2004 and then to vessels over 15 metres from 1 January 2005. Detailed rulessubsequently adopted by the European Commission in October 2003 require member statesto take measures to ensure that satellite tracking devices fitted to fishingvessels do not permit the input or output of false positions and are notcapable of being over-ridden.
To secure the maximumenforcement benefit from vessel monitoring systems it has been decided thattracking devices fitted to UK fishing vessels should be fully “tamper proof”and dedicated to position reporting.
Since such terminals may notbe used by vessel owners or masters for business purposes, and subject to parliamentaryapproval the Executive has decided to meet the costs of fitting tamper proofterminals to those UK registered vessels for which it is the licensingauthority. It is proposed that vessel owners will be able to reclaim from the departmentthe costs (excluding VAT) of purchasing and installing compliant equipment. Thearrangements will be time limited. They will apply to existing vessels andthose that join the fleet before 31 December 2004.
The actual cost of terminalshas yet to be determined but, including fitting and warranty, is expected to bebetween £2,500 and £3,000 per vessel. It is expected that around 480 vesselswill be equipped with tamper proof terminals, hopefully by the end of 2004, atan overall cost of around £1.4 million.
- Asked by: Phil Gallie, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 21 November 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 8 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-3951 by Margaret Curran on 20 November 2003, how many sites were provided by local authorities and available for use by gypsies and travelling people in (a) 1997 and (b) 2002.
Answer
The number of sites providedby local authorities in 1997 for gypsies and travellers was 35. By the end of 2002,two new sites had been built. Two sites had in practice been closed.
Information on theavailability of pitches at individual sites is provided in twice yearly countsof gypsies-travellers which have been undertaken since 1998. Copies of the reportssetting out the result of the counts are available in Scottish Parliament’sInformation Centre.
- Asked by: Phil Gallie, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 20 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S20-673 by Margaret Curran on 6 November 2003, how many sites were provided by local authorities for gypsies and travelling people in (a) 1980, (b) 1985, (c) 1990 and (d) 2000.
Answer
The number of sites providedby local authorities for gypsies-travellers at the dates specified is shown inthe following table.
| Year | Number of Sites Available for Gypsies/Travellers at Each Year |
| (a) 1980 | 1 |
| (b) 1985 | 13 |
| (c) 1990 | 23 |
| (d) 2000 | 35 |
- Asked by: Phil Gallie, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 17 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what new electricity generation plants are currently under construction; how many applications for construction have been approved, and how many applications are currently under consideration.
Answer
Figures for electricitygeneration plants currently under construction and applications for consentmade to local authorities are not held centrally.
Since January 2003, Scottishministers have given consent under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 totwo on-shore wind farms, three hydro schemes, one off-shore wind farm and anatural gas fired power station with a total additional generation capacity of736 megawatts.
Under the Electricity Act, weare presently considering 12 wind farm applications and nine hydro schemes witha potential capacity of over 1400 megawatts.
- Asked by: Phil Gallie, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2003
-
Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 17 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of its renewable energy targets, what it estimates the output of all categories of electricity generation will be in 2010.
Answer
No such estimates have beenmade. Future generation patterns will depend upon a number of factors. Theseinclude variations in fuel prices, the development of new technologies such aswave and tidal energy, biomass and cleaner coal, and the closure orrefurbishment of existing plant by the industry.
