Chamber and committees

Under the current Conservation of Seals Act 1970 there is no legal requirement to report the number of seals shot, except under licence, and there are, therefore, no official statistics on this.

The proposals under the Marine (Scotland) Bill will make it an offence to kill any seal at any time, except under licence, and include a duty to report numbers of seals killed to provide essential statistics.

The Scottish Government is currently developing the new seal licensing system in consultation with stakeholders, including its statutory scientific advisers and the Scottish Seals Forum. It anticipates that the system will involve the use of a permitted/potential biological removal (PBR), which provides a maximum figure for individuals that can be removed without affecting the wider population. This will ensure effective monitoring of potential impact on seal populations.

The Scottish Government is indeed liaising with the UK Government with regard to its proposals for improving seal protection.

The grounds for the decision to discontinue the Scottish School Leavers Survey are set out within the publication note of 31 October 2008:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/10/17104150/PublicationNote.

The 17 sports in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games programme are aquatics, athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, judo, lawn bowls, netball, rugby sevens, shooting, squash, table tennis, triathlon, weightlifting and wrestling.

After each games there is a review of the sports programme by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) to ensure forthcoming games are likely to be of sufficient international competitive standard. Ideally, events should have at least 10 competitors representing at least six countries from three continental regions.

In November 2006, the CGF agreed changes in their approach to the inclusion of sports in the Commonwealth Games programme and decided there should be three categories: Category 1 - ten core or compulsory sports; Category 2 - a list of sports eligible for inclusion in the games from which each bidding city can draw up to seven sports, and Category 3 - sports recognised by the CGF for development purposes but which cannot be included in the games yet. It is for bidding cities to propose a sports programme which complies with those criteria.

The sports programme contained in the successful bid for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games was selected to give the best balance of sports and events. It took account of the likely spread of medal success and the potential legacy from inclusion of the sport, taking into account the level of interest and the range and depth of potential athlete entries from across the Commonwealth. The programme selected also made best use of Glasgow''s existing and proposed venues.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-24118 on 1 June 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Scottish Parliaments website:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Men will be able to compete in 16 of the 17 sports in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games programme, the exception being netball. Within the gymnastics programme, the rhythmic gymnastics events are restricted to women. Women will be able to compete in all but three of the 17 sports in the programme. Women will not compete in boxing, rugby sevens or wrestling.

Although the sports to be included in the 2014 Commonwealth Games have been agreed, the final programme of individual events will be determined by the Commonwealth Games Federation. The Federation will undertake a review of the potential events following the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October 2010. Commonwealth Games Scotland and the organisers of the 2014 Games will be consulted as part of this review before a final programme of events is agreed. The final programme will determine the number of events open to men and women (or both).

Lamlash Bay Community Marine Reserve (no-take zone (NTZ)) was put in place in September 2008. This was done by means of the Inshore Fishing (Prohibition on Fishing) (Lamlash Bay) (Scotland) Order 2008 which came into force on 20 September 2008. By virtue of Section 4 of the Inshore Fishing (Scotland) Act 1984, any person who contravenes a prohibition contained in this Order shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine of up to £5,000 and on conviction on indictment to an unlimited fine.

As part of surveillance measures undertaken by Marine Scotland Compliance regarding the no-take zone, a geo fence has been set up around the NTZ. The fence surrounds the NTZ at a distance of approximately two miles. Any Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) equipped fishing vessel entering this area will automatically commence sending VMS positions at an increased frequency of 10 minutes (additional transmission costs are borne by Marine Monitoring Centre (MMC)). The alarm generates an email to the MMC operational address.

 

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-23910 on 28 May 2009. 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.

As is the case with the Community Marine Reserve (no-take zone (NTZ)), the intention was and remains that the fisheries management area should be considered and implemented through a process in which key stakeholders are involved, and through which consensus is achieved.

Given this, and bearing in mind that the issues raised relate predominantly to fishing, there is a need to ask the newly established Clyde Inshore Fisheries Group (IFG) to become involved together with COAST and other organisations already at the table. It is anticipated that proposed measures in Lamlash Bay will be given early consideration by the IFG and progress on the matter is expected soon.