- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 8 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the maximum safe limit is for human consumption of residues of emamectin benzoate (SLICE) in the flesh of farmed Scottish salmon.
Answer
The European Commission’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Veterinary Use (CVMP) evaluated the safety of emamectin in January 1999. It set an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of 1µg/kg bodyweight/day. The ADI is defined as “an estimate of the amount of a substance, expressed on a bodyweight basis that can be ingestedover a lifetime without appreciable health risk”.
The CVMP also set a Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) for emamectin in salmon (muscle and skin in natural proportions) of 100µg/kg. The MRL is defined as the maximum concentration of a residue that is legally permitted or acceptable in or on a food. As long as a food contains residues of emamectin either at or below, the MRL, the ADI will not be exceeded.
A person eating a standard 300g portion of salmon containing residues of emamectin at the MRL would ingest approximately 30µg of emamectin – an amount smaller than the ADI.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 31 January 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how it assesses the success of the civic participation initiatives that it has supported since 1999, including the work of its Civic Participation Unit and of external organisations; what benchmarks it considers should be used in assessing the development of a more participatory democracy in Scotland, and how it envisages this work progressing over the next five years.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is strongly committed to the principle of civic participation and we support a range of different approaches to developing this commitment. This includes providing support for a number of organisations who promote civic participation as well as specific initiatives such as promoting citizenship education in schools; supporting volunteering and the voluntary sector, and promoting community engagement through community planning partnerships.
We have encouraged increased opportunities for civic participation and stakeholder engagement by building a consistent approach to public consultation into our policy making processes. The Executive’s Consultation Registration and Evaluation System (CRES) was set up in December 2003 by the civic participation research team in our office of the chief researcher to record details of all Scottish Executive (SE) consultation activity and the online SE consultation service enables registered users to receive weekly updates on new consultation activity across the Executive. Over 780 consultations have taken place since 1999, including the recent consultation on smoking in public places, which attracted over 53,000 responses.
The evaluation of the successful achievement of policy outcomes is also at the heart of our approach to delivering professional policy, and this encourages the sharing of good practice and the development of policies better tailored to meet the needs of the people of Scotland.
We will continue to consider every specific proposal for developing civic participation in public policy development on its own merits, in accordance with our principles, policy priorities, and the need to ensure value for money.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 17 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is a national database of children in Scotland who are at risk of significant harm, as defined in the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.
Answer
There is no national database. Each local authority keeps a list of children who are at risk on a child protection register.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 16 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is a national database of children in Scotland who are deemed to be in need.
Answer
There is no national database of children in need. The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration host a database which holds information on children who are referred to them. It is used for the purposes of managing the agency and providing specific anonymised information for the purposes of research.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 16 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any plans to build a national database to include details of children at risk and in need and, if so, whether these details will be shared and integrated with information databases in England and Wales.
Answer
The Executive is not building a national database. It is currently supporting pilots to develop potential IT systems sharing which would allow practitioners to view agreed information from another agency in cases where they have the consent of the child/carer or because they are investigating a concern about the child.
The pilot developments are currently Scotland based. In the long-term systems development could enable agencies to share agreed information with the information databases in England and Wales.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 November 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when the Scottish Environment Protection Agency last inspected the area around (a) Hunterston, (b) Torness, (c) Chapelcross and (d) Dounreay power station for radioactive contamination; what levels of contamination were identified, and what action was recommended.
Answer
This is a matter for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) which undertakes regular monitoring of radioactivity levels around nuclear sites. SEPA publishes the Radioactivity in Food and the Environment Report jointly with the Food Standards Agency (Scotland) on an annual basis. This has not indicated any cause for concern for either the environment or in terms of doses to the public as a result of contamination.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 November 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 18 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will make commitments in respect of the marine environment comparable to those recently made by the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for the Environment and the Minister for Nature Conservation and Fisheries.
Answer
Decisions about how best to manage Scotland's seas will be taken once the analysis of responses to the consultation “Developing a Strategic Framework for Scotland's Marine Environment” is complete.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 9 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether a child, whose parent is using a direct payment to purchase a short break for the child, would be regarded as “looked after” under section 25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.
Answer
A child is not regarded as looked after when their parent purchases a respite placement using direct payments.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 9 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what additional resources have been made available to encourage innovation and new services that can be purchased by direct payments while existing services are maintained.
Answer
The Scottish Executive funds Direct Payments Scotland. This project promotes direct payments uptake nationally and assists with setting up and supporting local support organisations. Since April 2004, the Executive has also provided some funding to the Supported Personal Assistant Employment Network to assist those who receive direct payments who wish to employ their own staff.
- Asked by: Robin Harper, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 8 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what further action it will take to promote the uptake of direct payments and how such action will be monitored.
Answer
The intention is to extend direct payments to include older people aged 65 and over from 2005. The introduction will be accompanied by new guidance and regulations, with consideration being given to using performance indicators to monitor implementation.
