- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 February 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 3 March 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what it considers that the effect would be of the revocation of a licence to construct works within the Scottish marine area where the licensed construction has already taken place.
Answer
A marine licence will be valid for the length of the agreed construction period. It is difficult to envisage a situation where a licence could be revoked once a licensed construction had taken place.
Where the licensed activity is of an ongoing nature then revocation, suspension powers through the Marine (Scotland) Act will have an effect.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 February 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 3 March 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications for civil legal aid in relation to environmental matters have been considered by the Scottish Legal Aid Board in the last three years.
Answer
Information relating to legal aid applications and awards is collected centrally by the Scottish Legal Aid Board. It does not, however, hold definitive information on applications and subsequent awards which specifically relate to environmental matters.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 25 February 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to be able to reduce the number of prison places as a result of the introduction of effective policies to reduce reoffending.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to breaking the cycle of reoffending by tackling the problem of offenders caught in the revolving door of short sentences for whom prison is clearly not working.
The Scottish Government wants to see these offenders payback positively to their communities. That is why we have proposals in the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill for swift, tough and visible community payback.
As the independent Scottish Prisons Commission said, that will be the point when prison numbers start to decline. Prison will then be used for its proper purpose of protecting the public from serious and dangerous offenders.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 February 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of operators of aquaculture and fisheries equipment has shot seals in the last five years without having (a) antipredator nets, (b) properly tensioned antipredator nets and (c) acoustic deterrent devices in place.
Answer
This information is not collected centrally.
The new seal licensing system set out in the Marine (Scotland) Bill will, for the first time, collect information on anti-predator nets and acoustic deterrents as part of the licence application process.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 February 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many seals have been culled under the Moray Firth Seal Management Plan; whether there are plans to extend the scheme across Scotland and, if so, how many seals might be culled in each year; how the plan relates to the new seal licence system, and whether culling will be used in cases where licences to shoot seals are not granted.
Answer
There is no culling of seals in Scotland. The Moray Firth Seal Management Plan permits limited local seal management under licence conditions to protect fisheries.
The following table is a record of seals licensed to be shot and actual seals shot since the plan started in 2005.
| | Grey Licensed | Grey Shot | Common Licensed | Common Shot |
| 2005 | 50 | 47 | 60 | 46 |
| 2006 | 57 | 42 | 43 | 17 |
| 2007 | 60 | 29 | 50 | 13 |
| 2008 | 60 | 20 | 50 | 16 |
| 2009 | 60 | 9 | 30 | 8 |
The new seal licence system under the Marine (Scotland) Bill will control seal management across Scotland from 2011. Applications for a licence may be submitted by those seeking to manage seals in order to protect their fisheries or fish farms. Applications will be judged against strict criteria including information on damage and the effectiveness of non-lethal alternatives.
It is not possible at this point to predict how many seal licence applications will be received, how many will be granted, how many seals will be licensed or how many might be killed under licence.
Under the Marine (Scotland) Bill it will be an offence to kill or take seals without a licence.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 February 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-30205 by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2010, what the term normal circumstances covers and what abnormal or other circumstances might require use of lethal measures.
Answer
The term normal circumstances was used to describe situations where a satisfactory case has been made that non-lethal measures are not, or would not be effective.
It is not possible to predict precisely all other circumstances. It might, however, include circumstances where non-lethal measures cannot be used because of potential impacts on other marine life. It might include circumstances where non-lethal measures prove ineffective against individual seals. It might also cover unpredictable extreme circumstances where the Scottish Government has to take emergency action, for example, to preserve public health or safety or to prevent the spread of disease as set out in the provisions of the Marine (Scotland) Bill.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 February 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-30205 by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2010, whether the new seal licence system will ensure that all non-lethal measures are used by operators of aquaculture and fisheries equipment and whether a record will be kept of those non-lethal measures that prove to be ineffective and the reasons for their ineffectiveness.
Answer
It may not be practical to insist that all non-lethal measures are used by fisheries or fish farms before a licence can be issued.
There are a wide variety of non-lethal measures available. It is known that some are ineffective, or not suitable, in some areas, because of their impacts on other marine mammals.
The new seal licence system will, for the first time, allow information on non-lethal measures currently in use and their perceived effectiveness to be collected for evaluation with a view to making recommendations for best practice.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 February 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-30205 by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2010, when the cetacean-friendly seal scarer will be field tested and whether its use, if found to be effective, will be made mandatory for operators of aquaculture and fisheries equipment.
Answer
The Scottish Government has recently approved funding to support the field testing process and this will begin soon. It would be wrong at this stage to prejudge the potential results of this process. It is, however, hoped that such non-lethal measures will eventually replace lethal options in most cases.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 29 January 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 10 February 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Ministers could delegate functions relating to section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 under the provisions of section 42 of the Marine (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
Functions under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 are not capable of being delegated under section 42 of the Marine (Scotland) Bill because they are not functions under part 3 of the bill (see section 42(5) of the bill).
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 4 February 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the environmental impacts of the biannual Joint Warrior military exercises off Scotland’s west coast are measured and, if so, what these were in (a) 2008 and (b) 2009 and what they are anticipated to be in 2010.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-31120 on 4 February 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
