Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executivereceived some 250 responses to its first public consultation exercise on the EnvironmentalLiability Directive.

Where consultees havegiven their consent to publication, our findings will be published on the Executive’swebsite shortly.

Yes, a further publicconsultation, including draft regulations intended to transpose the Directive, willbe held in the autumn.

The ScottishExecutive contingency plan for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) sets out the basicdisease control strategy. The specific circumstances of each outbreak are takeninto account in refining that approach.

Vaccination wouldbe considered where appropriate to the specific disease situation.

The ScottishGovernment has access to the UK vaccine bank and the Animal Health Agencyhas teams available to deliver a vaccination programme. There is no singlevaccine for FMD and availability would depend on the strain identified. Fornational security reasons EU legislation forbids the disclosure of the size of the vaccine banks.

Officials have beenworking in conjunction with outdoor providers, educationalists and Learning TeachingScotland in developing the programme of work on outdoor learning since 2005. Wehave decided to continue the funding for this project to take forward some of thefindings from the report. This includes the need to ensure that outdoor learningis recognised as an important context which will help teachers provide opportunitiesto deliver the four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence. We do not plan to issuea formal response but continue to work with the interested parties.

I have asked Dr. PaulStollard, Chief Executive of the Scottish Building Standards Agency (SBSA), to answer.His response is as follows:

The SBSA will enterinto protocol with a variety of professional organisations within the building,property and energy sectors for the production of Energy Performance Certificates.We are in discussion with different organisations whose members have different skillsetsfor the disparate nature of the existing building stock. This should ensure thatall categories are covered when Energy Performance Certificates are introduced fordifferent buildings.

I have asked Dr. PaulStollard, Chief Executive of the Scottish Building StandardsAgency (SBSA), to answer. His response is as follows:

In the early years,the estimated the number of Energy Performance Certificates issued on an annualbasis following full implementation of the Energy Performance Building Directive(EPBD) is as follows:

Category	Estimated Number of EPCs
(a) new homes	25,000
(b) existing homes sold on the private housing market	105,000
(c) rented accommodation	130,000
(d) non-domestic accommodation	20,000
Total	280,000

 

I have asked Dr. PaulStollard, Chief Executive of the Scottish Building Standards Agency (SBSA), to answer.His response is as follows:

SBSA staff have haddialogue with the following organisations regarding the protocol arrangements:

Building ResearchEstablishment (BRE)

Chartered Institute of Building Service Engineers Scotland (CIBSE - Scotland)

Energy Action Scotland (EAS)

Energy Institute (EI)

Federation of AuthorisedEnergy Rating Organisations (FAERO)

Heating VentilationContractors Association (HVCA)

National Energy Services(NES)

Royal Incorporationof Architects in Scotland (RIAS)

Royal Institutionof Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

Valuation Office Agency(VOA).

I have asked Dr. PaulStollard, Chief Executive of the Scottish Building Standards Agency (SBSA), to answer.His response is as follows:

The issue of EnergyPerformance Certificates (EPCs) has not been limited to chartered institutes. TheSBSA would be willing to meet with any body that is capable of acting as a professionalorganisation to discuss a potential protocol agreement.

I have asked Dr. PaulStollard, Chief Executive of the Scottish Building StandardsAgency (SBSA), to answer. His response is as follows:

Energy PerformanceCertificates are being introduced to Scotland in a phasedapproach. Energy Performance Certificates for construction of buildings were introducedin May of this year. For sale of buildings, such certificates will be brought inwith the introduction of the Single Survey in 2008. Energy Performance Certificateswill be required for buildings which are to be rented out from January 2009.

I have asked Dr. PaulStollard, Chief Executive of the Scottish Building Standards Agency (SBSA), to answer.His response is as follows:

In addition to continuingthe dialogue with many of the organisations listed in the answer to questionS3W-2682 on 23 August 2007, the SBSA would be willing to meet with anybody that is capable of acting as a professional organisation to discuss a potentialprotocol agreement.

All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.