- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 March 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 13 April 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will encourage care home providers to liaise with local authorities that will act as agents for people who self-fund their care home costs.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-32551 on 13 April 2010. 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: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 18 March 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many complaints have been received regarding breaches of the Horse Identification (Scotland) Regulations 2009.
Answer
Local authorities have responsibility for enforcing the Horse Identification (Scotland) Regulations 2009 which were brought in to comply with European Commission Decision 504/208. Local authorities deal with breaches on a reactive basis.
Scottish Government does not hold a central record of complaints about breaches of the Regulation. Information received from local authorities to date indicates that only a very small number of complaints have been received.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 18 March 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure compliance with the Horse Identification (Scotland) Regulations 2009.
Answer
Local authorities have responsibility for enforcing the Horse Identification (Scotland) Regulations 2009 which were brought in to comply with European Commission Decision 504/208. Local authorities deal with breaches on a reactive basis. If information regarding a possible breach of the legislation is received it will be investigated in accordance with the local authorities enforcement policy.
Breach of the Regulations is an offence punishable on summary conviction by a fine up to the statutory maximum or three months imprisonment, or both. On indictment the penalty is an unlimited fine or two years imprisonment, or both.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how often it has met representatives of the Bee Farmers’ Association since May 2007.
Answer
Scottish Government officials have met directly with representatives from the Bee Farmers'' Association formally on several occasions in relation to the Bee Health Strategy for Scotland and the EFB/AFB Disease outbreak. Contact and the sharing of information has also been kept up by correspondence. Officials have also attended meetings arranged by Defra to which representatives from the BFA have also been present.
| General Stakeholder Meeting | 5 March 2008 |
| Bee Health Strategy Meetings | 17 July 2008 2 April 2009 |
| Disease Stakeholder Meetings | 20 July 2009 5 August 2009 19 August 2009 11 September 2009 17 November 2009 |
| Defra | 26 November 2007 |
Scottish Government officials have also met BFA representatives through field visits, attending conferences and training events.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-28868 by Richard Lochhead on 26 November 2009, what its position is regarding the sufficiency of the number of inspections of beehives in 2007 and 2008.
Answer
The Scottish Government is content with the sufficiency of the number of inspections of beehives in 2007 and 2008.
Scottish Government Bee Inspectors are obliged to carry out inspections only when they are informed of the presence or suspected presence of a notifiable disease or pest. Therefore, the number of completed inspections are in direct proportion to the number of notifications that have been received.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on screening for varroa mites resistant to pyrethroid medication in each of the last three years.
Answer
The Scottish Government completed an exercise to establish if there was a resistance to pyrethroids in Scotland in 2008 at a cost of £4,252. Restrictions in place brought on by foot and mouth in 2007 meant that this exercise, originally planned for 2007, was carried out in 2008. No expenditure has taken place in 2009 specifically for this task.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding it will provide to the bee industry following the announcement by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 21 January 2009 that an additional £2.3 million would be allocated to the National Bee Unit.
Answer
The Scottish Government have, in 2009:
contributed £500,000 to a five-year insect pollinator research initiative
confirmed our commitment to the funding of four full-time equivalent Bee Inspectors who will be in post until spring 2011 (when the position will be reviewed)
continued our support of an apiculture specialist at SAC and the provision of a free diagnostic service to beekeepers to identify and confirm the presence of varroa and notifiable bee pests and diseases at SASA
funded, provided and distributed the antibiotic Oxytetracycline (OTC) to beefarmers affectect by the EFB outbreak and provided the training for them to ensure the safe use and administration of the OTC
are currently considering investing in the National Bee Unit''s electronic database (Beebase), which is able to provide services and information to both beekeepers and bee inspectors.
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on services provided by Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture in relation to varroa mites.
Answer
Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) provides a free diagnostic service to beekeepers to identify and confirm the presence of Varroa and notifiable bee pests and diseases as well as technical advice. The available figures cover the totals for SASA''s work in support of Bee Health:
| 2006 | £12,183.00 |
| 2007 | £8,659.34 |
| 2008 | £4,459.00 |
| 2009 (up to end September 2009) | £19,481.65 |
- Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, given that the bee strategy in England and Wales was launched in March 2009, for what reason its equivalent strategy has been delayed.
Answer
The publication of the strategy has been delayed due to the unprecedented events of two notifiable bee diseases being confirmed during the summer and autumn of 2009.
Scottish Government officials considered it prudent to take time to consider the valuable lessons that could be learned from this experience and incorporate them into the strategy.
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30189 on 25 January 2010. 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: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-28868 by Richard Lochhead on 26 November 2009, for what reason inspections are completed only when a beekeeper has contacted the relevant authority as a result of a suspected notifiable disease.
Answer
Inspections are completed in this way to enable the Scottish Government to fulfil their legal obligations under The Bee Diseases and Pests Control (Scotland) Order 2007 and the Bees Act 1980.
