Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has an obligation under community and national legislation to undertake inspections of holdings which maintain livestock. The inspections are carried out by Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate staff who ensure compliance with the keeper requirements.

In relation to sheep this includes a sample of individual sheep to ensure compliance with tagging requirements. This can include sheep born or identified after 31 December 2009 which require to be either fully electronically identified, or identified with a single electronic tag (known as a slaughter tag and applicable for sheep intended for slaughter within 12 months of birth).

The inspection procedure also includes a full head count of all sheep on a keepers holding to validate the keepers records and accuracy of movements being reported to the national database. The record check confirms that the sheep keeper is maintaining a holding register containing all the legislative information required.

Errors or omissions discovered at a sheep inspection require the Scottish Government to assess the level of non compliance and take the necessary measures to ensure that the regulations applicable are implemented.

The Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate aim to take a pragmatic approach to findings of non compliance, while ensuring that the penalties provided for are effective, proportionate and persuasive. The inspection of livestock records and animal ear tags form a part of all livestock inspections.

The penalty regime which applies to farmers and crofters covering breaches of sheep identification and traceability is unchanged. Payment reductions under the cross compliance regime are applicable for holding register discrepancies and tagging errors. Payment reductions will not be applied where discrepancies are as a result of technical limitations, which includes electronic identification equipment

The introduction of the requirement for sheep keepers to include individual EID information in the flock registers has initiated discussions with Commission officials. The discussions will clarify what possibilities exist for leniency within the cross compliance penalty framework for farmers and crofters that are identified at inspection as have missing individual identifier details in their on farm holding registers. Scottish Government is pushing the Commission very hard on this issue with frequent communications taking place with the aim being to ensure a fair and proportionate penalty for keepers who flout the sheep legislation, but does not penalise the sheep keeper who is attempting to adhere to the rules.

Farmers and crofters selected for inspection, with livestock maintained on a common grazing land, are subject to the same inspection procedure regarding verification of livestock records and animal ear tags as keepers that do not maintain livestock on common grazing land. Scottish Government has not plans to change this position.

Cattle inspections are carried out by Rural Payments and Inspectorate staff who always take the welfare of cattle into account while conducting the physical inspection. In the situation where cows are at the point of calving, the inspector has the discretion to postpone the physical inspection, therefore avoiding a potential animal welfare situation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-00824 on 18 July 2011. 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/MAQASearch/QAndMSearch.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-00824 on 18 July 2011. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

It is assumed that the member is referring to CS incapacitant spray which is issued to all police officers in Scotland who have been trained in its use. The information requested is not held centrally. Any enquiries should be addressed to Scottish Police Forces.

It is assumed that the member is referring to CS incapacitant spray, which is issued to all police officers in Scotland who have been trained in its use. Scottish Ministers do not have a role in issuing guidance. The deployment and use of such sprays, including the issuing of guidance, is an operational matter for Chief Constables. Officers must ensure that the use of CS spray is fair, proportionate and justifiable.

Scottish Government is making available in 2011-12, £20 million in grant to assist the construction of new council houses as part of the £50 million Innovation and Investment Fund.

However, the main funding source for councils incurring additional Housing Revenue Account debt from the construction of new council houses is prudential borrowing. This is repaid over time from rental income from the council’s housing stock.

Local authorities can also use other sources of funding to finance council house building projects, for example Council Tax revenue from second homes and
long-term empty properties, council reserves and capital receipts from Right to Buy sales and the sale of other assets. Councils can also fund capital expenditure directly from the HRA in any year using a revenue contribution to capital.

Scottish Government would also encourage councils to explore innovative sources of funds for new council housing.

The cost of the Scottish Distant Islands Allowance is included within the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee formula as part of the calculation of the cost of providing services on islands. The Scottish Government Distant Islands Allowance allocation to the island NHS boards in 2011-12 is shown below:

NHS Shetland: £0.44 million;

NHS Orkney: £0.30 million;

NHS Western Isles: £0.36 million.

The issue of island NHS boards incurring costs associated with staff attending training events on the mainland was raised in the consultation with NHS boards carried out as part of the Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation‘s (TAGRA) report into the impact of the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee formula on remote and rural areas. Following discussion with the remote, rural, and island boards, this issue has not been included on the work plan of TAGRA’s remote and rural subgroup, but may be considered in the future.

The Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation (TAGRA) has undertaken a number of pieces of work looking at the needs of island NHS boards and remote and rural areas of Scotland more generally. This has included taking evidence from the NHS boards as to the special cost pressures that they face. Following this work, a new subgroup of TAGRA has been established to progress work on remote and rural issues. This has identified the costs of providing a minimum level of service in remote and rural areas, the costs of GP out-of-hours services, and costs relating to the Scottish Distant Islands Allowance, as priorities for future research.

Full details of the treatment of the needs of the island NHS boards within the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) formula is provided in the final report of NRAC: Delivering Fair Shares for Health in Scotland, available at:

http://www.tagra.scot.nhs.uk/research.html.

This website also hosts a set of answers to frequently asked questions about the formula.