Chamber and committees

SEARS will continue to focus on improving customer experiences of accessing and using the services of SEARS partners. There will be further opportunities to reduce and combine separate service-generated inspections and visits to rural land managers. These changes, allied with further streamlining of bureaucracy, will result in further time-savings to SEARS customers. The staff time freed up by reducing inspections will continue to be re-deployed in improving service delivery. The fee waiver to sheep farmers applying for Groundwater licences will continue to be an annual benefit of around £130,000. CO₂ savings from reduced travel by both customers and SEARS staff will arise from existing and planned SEARS simplifications. SEARS partners will explore the potential to offer access to a wider range of services from more SEARS offices. The SEARS partners will continue to shape further work in response to regular customer surveys and stakeholder feedback.

The main focus of the SEARS Programme is to improve customer experiences of accessing and using the services of SEARS partners. While some of these benefits could potentially be measured using a full cost-benefit analysis, there are concerns that the effort involved in such an exercise might be disproportionate to the benefits.

The main focus of the SEARS Programme is to improve customer experiences of accessing and using the services of SEARS partners. Staff time freed up by reducing inspections has been re-deployed to improve service delivery.

Information on the number of injuries to dog walkers by livestock is not held centrally.

The Scottish Outdoor Access Code, prepared by Scottish Natural Heritage, provides detailed guidance to dog owners on responsible behaviour in proximity to livestock. The Code is available at www.outdooraccess-scotland.com Scottish Natural Heritage has also produced a leaflet and run events promoting the advice to dog owners.

The Health and Safety Executive provides information on Cattle and Public Access in Scotland which describes the major potential hazards to farmers, livestock managers and the general public, and is available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/ais17s.pdf.

Officials from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland met with Commission officials in February 2009 to discuss proposed changes to discuss proposals to revise the cross-compliance payment reduction systems as a result of the 2008 audits in England and Wales.

The Commission made it clear at this meeting that they expected the majority of cross-compliance breaches to result in a 3% payment reduction otherwise significant disallowance (EC fines) would apply. This approach was further confirmed and clarified in the Commission audit letters to Wales and later to Northern Ireland following their audit in spring 2009.

Implementation of critical control points (CCP''s) is not dependant on the introduction of a new database or continued use of the existing animal movement database. CCP''s are being introduced to assist with the recording of individual animals for the purpose of completing holding registers and movement documents; the main purpose of CCPs is not to provide individual information to a central database.

The Scottish Government has long argued that socio-economic criteria should be taken into account in the European GM approvals process. The government has expressed this view to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on numerous occasions at both official and ministerial level. Although the European Commission is seeking views on the subject, it has not made any formal proposals to date.

The Scottish Government is still considering this issue in the wider context of the rules to be introduced regarding the new provisions of EU Regulation 21/2004. Once decisions have been made, guidance will be issued to all sheep and goat keepers explaining the requirements.

This is a matter for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), who are responsible for the administration and payment of the Carer''s Allowance. I have written to DWP ministers previously to convey concerns about the level of the Carer''s Allowance.

The Carers Strategy for Scotland, including that relating to young carers, will be published during the first half of 2010. It is being developed in partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and is being informed by the work of two steering groups (one on carers and one on young carers) and by a carers reference group comprising 10 carers.