- Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 April 2010
-
Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 30 April 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any volcanic ash settling on Scottish soil as a result of the eruption at the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in Iceland would have implications for food production.
Answer
Current monitoring information in Scotland suggests that it is unlikely that volcanic ash settling on Scottish soil as a result of the volcanic eruption in Iceland will affect food production in Scotland. Officials in the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and the Met Office are continuing to monitor ash dust at a number of sites across the UK.
- Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 April 2010
-
Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 30 April 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there would be any danger to livestock consuming volcanic ash from the eruption at the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in Iceland.
Answer
Current monitoring information in Scotland, suggests that it is unlikely that volcanic ash settling on Scottish soil, as a result of the volcanic eruption in Iceland, will affect livestock in Scotland. Officials in the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and the Met Office are continuing to monitor ash dust at a number of sites across the UK.
- Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 April 2010
-
Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 30 April 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any volcanic ash settling on Scottish soil as a result of the eruption at the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in Iceland would affect or contaminate crop production.
Answer
Current monitoring information in Scotland suggests that it is unlikely that volcanic ash settling on Scottish soil as a result of the volcanic eruption in Iceland will affect or contaminate crop production in Scotland. Officials in the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and the Met Office are continuing to monitor ash dust at a number of sites across the UK.
- Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 19 April 2010
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 29 April 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive on what date it expects to publish the Energy Efficiency Action Plan for Scotland.
Answer
The Energy Efficiency Action Plan for Scotland will be published before the summer recess. The action plan will set out a suite of ambitious policies and programmes to reduce Scotland''s energy consumption across all sectors.
- Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 29 March 2010
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 28 April 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how much (a) milk and (b) other dairy produce it purchases annually; by whom it is supplied, and what the farms of origin are.
Answer
This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise. I will ask its chief executive to reply to you.
- Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 26 March 2010
-
Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 26 April 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hectares of woodlands have (a) received support and (b) been approved for claim in which year under (i) the Areas of even-aged plantation undergoing restructuring felling category of the Sustainable Management of Forests option and (ii) each of the four categories of Restructuring regeneration category of the Woodland Improvement Grant option under the Scotland Rural Development Programme for 2007-13.
Answer
The area receiving grant payments for (i) Restructuring felling and (ii) Restructuring Regeneration is shown in table 1. The Restructuring Regeneration Area is an estimate and a breakdown by the separate categories is not available at this stage.
The area approved for (i) restructuring felling and (ii) restructuring regeneration is shown in table 2.
Table 1: Area Receiving Grant Support
| Option Description | Year | Area (Hectares) |
| Sustainable Management of Forests “ Restructuring Felling | 2009 | 208 |
| Restructuring regeneration | 2009 | 137* |
Note: *Estimated area.
Table 2: Area Approved (Hectares)
| Option Description | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | Total |
| Sustainable Management of Forests “ Restructuring Felling | 2,229 | 2,093 | 634 | 87 | 102 | 5,145 |
| Restructuring with Caledonian Scots Pine | 1 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 24 |
| Restructuring with diverse conifers | 666 | 822 | 379 | 28 | 1 | 1,896 |
| Restructuring with mixed broadleaves | 29 | 91 | 37 | 9 | 0 | 166 |
| Restructuring with native broadleaves | 141 | 267 | 124 | 71 | 111 | 714 |
| Total | 837 | 1196 | 542 | 108 | 117 | 2,800 |
- Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 March 2010
-
Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 22 April 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hectares of new woodland planting took place in 2009, broken down by woodland model supported under the Scotland Rural Development Programme.
Answer
The total woodland creation grant aided under the Scottish Rural Development Plan in calendar year 2009 was 1,864 hectares. This consists of 1,088 hectares under the woodland creation models and 776 hectares under legacy schemes.
A breakdown by woodland creation model is:
| Productive conifer - low cost | 142 |
| Productive conifer - high cost | 17 |
| Productive broadleaf woodland | 22 |
| Native woodland planting | 779 |
| Native woodland - natural regeneration | 10 |
| Mixed conifer/broadleaved woodland | 118 |
| Total | 1,088 |
| Legacy schemes | 776 |
| Grand Total | 1,864 |
Note: The answer to question S3W“32462 on 26 March 2010 said that the total area of new woodland created in 2009 was 2,154 hectares. This figure was made up of 1,417 hectares of grant-aided woodland creation and 737 hectares of new woodland on the national forest estate. Forestry Commission Scotland has now updated the grant-aided element to 1,864 (as indicated above) so the total area of woodland created in 2009 now stands at 2,601 hectares.
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.
- Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 March 2010
-
Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 22 April 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hectares of new woodland planting has been approved under the Scotland Rural Development Programme for 2007-13 through the (a) Regional Proposal Assessment Committee (RPAC) and (b) Forestry Commission Scotland’s ongoing approval process, broken down by woodland model.
Answer
The amount of woodland creation approved under the Scottish Rural Development Plan is (a) 8,603 hectares by the Regional Proposal Assessment Committees (RPAC''s) and (b) 1,452 hectares by the ongoing approval process.
Area approved by Woodland Creation Model:
| | Approved by RPAC | Approved by FCS | Total |
| Productive conifer “ low cost | 1,848 | 148 | 1,996 |
| Productive conifer “ high cost | 83 | 0 | 83 |
| Productive broadleaf woodland | 64 | 27 | 91 |
| Native woodland planting | 5,386 | 1,043 | 6,429 |
| Native woodland “ natural regeneration | 96 | 3 | 99 |
| Mixed conifer/broadleaved woodland | 1,126 | 231 | 1,357 |
| Total | 8,603 | 1,452 | 10,055 |
- Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 26 March 2010
-
Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 20 April 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had discussions with industry organisations regarding the need to bring forward legislation to create a single or integrated environmental permitting scheme and, if so, what the outcome was.
Answer
We have not yet had such discussions. Before any single or integrated environmental permitting scheme was introduced, consultation with organisations affected, including those which would benefit from a reduced regulatory burden, would be required in order to develop effective and proportionate legislation.
- Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 26 March 2010
-
Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 20 April 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had discussions with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency regarding the need to bring forward legislation to create a single or integrated environmental permitting scheme and, if so, what the outcome was.
Answer
We have regular discussions with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency on its Better Regulation work which aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of environmental regulation while reducing the burden on businesses which are regulated, consistent with the need to safeguard the environment and human health. We are considering with SEPA whether streamlining or integration of the separate regulatory regimes covering waste and pollution activities would be feasible and effective in achieving that aim.
