- Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 12 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what effect Norwegian ownership of Scottish salmon farms has on possible co-operation between Scotland and Norway in securing a long-term future for Scotland's aquaculture sector.
Answer
Norwegianownership of Scottish salmon farms has not been a factor concerning possiblefuture co-operation between Scotland and Norway in securing a long-term future for Scotland’s aquaculture sector.
Althoughthe corporate centres of the multi-national companies may lie overseas, thefact is they have a good track record in Scotland of investing in jobs, new technology and growing their businesses.
- Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to instigate a statutory coexistence and liability regime if authorised GM crops were to be grown commercially in England but not in Scotland.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-5789 on 10 February 2004.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/webapp/search_wa.
- Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs about the implications of growing GM mai'e in Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has regular contact with Defra on a range of issues, including GMcrops.
- Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how the precautionary principle would be applied in Scotland if authorised GM crops were to be grown commercially in England.
Answer
The precautionary principleis integral to EU Directive 2001/18 which governs the deliberate release ofGMOs. No GMO will receive consent under Directive 2001/18 if there issubstantiated evidence that it would be harmful to human health, animal healthor the environment.
The Executive recognises, thatthe growing of GM crops could affect the economic interests of conventional andorganic farming, and that measures will be required to ensure the sustainableco-existence of different forms of crop production in the event of a GM cropachieving all the relevant consents for cultivation. We are currentlyconsidering a report by the Agriculture and Environment BiotechnologyCommission on these issues.
- Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Secretary of State for Scotland and Royal Mail to promote future issues of postage stamps that celebrate Scottish themes.
Answer
The UK Government has giventhe responsibility for selecting topics for special stamps to Royal Mail. Thedecision is regarded as a matter for Royal Mail to make on a commercial basissubject to advice from the Stamp Advisory Committee. Royal Mail has informedthe Scottish Executive that they would consider any proposals for specialstamps.
- Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 9 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to Royal Mail to produce a set of postage stamps to celebrate the Year of Highland Culture 2007.
Answer
The Highland Year of Culture2007 project team is looking at a range of programming and other options tocelebrate the occasion. The member’s suggestion will be forwarded to the teamfor consideration.
- Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 27 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what health checks it has made of ingredients in approved food pellets for farmed salmon.
Answer
The Food Standards Agency (Scotland) isnow responsible for the regulation of animal feeding stuffs in Scotland.Trading standards officers within each local authority enforce theseregulations which includes sampling of animal feeding stuffs for dioxins andPCBs.
- Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 27 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what sources and quantities of organic food pellets are available for the farmed salmon industry, shown also as a proportion of total feed used in Scottish salmon farms, in each year since 2000.
Answer
This is a matter forindustry bodies, such as the UK Agriculture Supply Trades Association. Theinformation requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 December 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time equivalent vacant GP posts there are in the Highland NHS board area, expressed also as a percentage of all full-time equivalent GP posts.
Answer
The most recent information availableis shown in the following table.
Unrestricted PrincipalEquivalents (UPEs) 1 in Highland Health Board: As at 1 October 2003P
| Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) |
| All UPEs posts 2 | UPEs Vacated posts 3 | Vacated posts as a % of all UPEs posts |
| 213.0 | 6.0 | 2.8 |
PProvisional
Source: General medical practitioner database. ISD Scotland.
1. Unrestricted principals in General Medical Services (GMS) and their equivalents in Personal Medical Services (PMS) practices.
2. Establishment WTE (i e includes vacated posts).
3. Excludes “new” posts which may have been created but not yet filled.
- Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 December 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 26 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had since 1999 with the Crown Estate Commission regarding the subjects it has selected for research funded by the commission into seabed, inshore and foreshore matters.
Answer
Until recently the Executivewas represented on the Crown Estate’s Fish Farming Research Committee (CEFFRC).The Committee enabled stakeholders to direct available funds to aquacultureresearch. The CEFFRC has since been superseded by the Scottish AquacultureResearch Forum, which will be formally established shortly.
