Chamber and committees

The sums reimbursed to NHS boards in respect of claims submitted to the Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme in each of the last three financial years were as follows:

NHS Board	2005-06 (£)	2006-07 (£)	2007-08 (£)
Argyll and Clyde	330,398.00	-	-
Ayrshire and Arran	16,963.86	169,909.98	307,330.35
Borders	-	210,739.15	1,397,943.95
Dumfries and Galloway	-	-	157,678.32
Fife	-	1,227,681.64	305,583.25
Forth Valley	83,539.22	1,671,479.78	3,806,277.15
Grampian	248,345.50	71,000.00	496,991.28
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	2,578,660.79	4,793,261.75	2,778,296.42
Highland	737,254.75	823,995.00	3,226,756.74
Lanarkshire	67,381.45	197,366.61	327,913.56
Lothian	21,910.38	8,849.84	5,228,424.78
Orkney	9,218.41	-	-
Shetland	-	-	-
Tayside	361,796.96	439,766.25	844,395.32
Western Isles	-	-	-
Scottish Ambulance Service	-	-	50,168.21
Totals	4,455,469.32	9,614,050.00	18,927,759.33

 

The figures above reflect the dates when reimbursement claims were paid to NHS boards from the Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme, and not the dates when each individual case was settled.

Periodical payments are permitted in Scotland, with the consent of both parties, under the Damages Act 1996 as amended by the Courts Act 2003. The Executive is currently considering several areas of the law on damages, including periodical payments, pending the availability of a future legislative opportunity.

The information requested is provided in the following table.

Local Authority	Number of Recycling Centres  (previously known as Civil Amenity Sites)
Aberdeen	4
Aberdeenshire	16
Angus	8
Argyll and Bute	13
Clackmannanshire	1
Dumfries and Galloway	11
Dundee	3
East Ayrshire	2
East Dunbartonshire	1
East Lothian	4
East Renfrewshire	2
Edinburgh	4
Falkirk	2
Fife	11
Glasgow	4
Highland	23
Inverclyde	2
Midlothian	2
Moray	9
North Ayrshire	6
North Lanarkshire	6
Orkney	4
Perth and Kinross	8
Renfrewshire	6
Scottish Borders	6
Shetland	1
South Ayrshire	5
South Lanarkshire	6
Stirling	3
West Dunbartonshire	3
West Lothian	6
Western Isles	3
Total	185

 

This information was obtained from the website www.sort-it.org.uk.

Yes.

In November 2003, the then Scottish Executive published a report by AEA Technology on Incentives for Householders to Change their Waste Practices. This is available on the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2003/11/18568/29504.

Waste Aware Scotland have published guidance on effective campaigning at local level to promote reduce, re-using and recycling waste. This guidance can be found at:

http://www.wasteawarescotland.org.uk/html/guidance.asp.

Waste Aware Scotland are also producing a Recycling Advisers Report that will be published soon.

Remade Scotland have prepared two Best Practice Reports on the collection of recyclate from the kerbside. One has been published and is available on their website while the second report is due to be published soon. http://www.remade.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=318.

The Waste Aware Scotland (WAS) brand, marketed by the Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG) aims to make the reduce, reuse, recycle message easy for householders to follow through attractive, simple, consistent messages and advice. It also provides essential information about local recycling services through the on-line “sort-it” tool. Levels of household recycling are monitored by local authorities and the WAS programme itself is evaluated by SWAG through periodic national surveys of public attitudes to the reduce, reuse, recycle message.

At a local level local authorities are primarily responsible for delivering campaigns to encourage recycling and waste reduction.

On a national level the Scottish Government provides funding to the Waste Aware Scotland programme as part of our commitment to a Greener Scotland. This national programme encourages the people of Scotland to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle their household waste. Further information about what is being done at a national and local level can be found at:

http://www.wasteawarescotland.org.uk/.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to high levels of recycling and waste prevention. To help achieve this I announced in my parliamentary statement on waste policy earlier this year that the Scottish Government will be preparing a new National Waste Management Plan for Scotland. This plan will be prepared in consultation with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and other key stakeholders. We will be consulting widely on future waste policy initiatives as we develop the plan.

The licence given to the SWT and RZSS includes 31 conditions. A significant number of these conditions were included as a result of an appraisal of the beaver trial undertaken by Scottish Natural Heritage in relation to the special area of conservation (SAC) and the special protection area (SPA). If the beaver trial is undertaken strictly in accordance with the licence conditions, then the trial will not adversely affect the integrity of the SAC/SPA.

Scottish Natural Heritage’s (SNH) participation in the beaver trial is set out in the conditions of the licence. SNH is currently identifying the core elements that need to be monitored during the trial. However, although it has the key role in coordinating such work, it does not necessarily have to provide all the resources. SNH therefore intends to hold further discussions with the licence applicants, together with other parties who may be involved with the monitoring, to discuss resourcing issues.

Therefore, at this stage, details of the direct, staff and ancillary costs to SNH for each year of the beaver re-introduction trial have still to be worked out.

Gyrodactylus salaris (G. salaris) is a parasite of fish which requires a fish host to survive. Beavers are considered to be only potential external carriers of the parasite (i.e. G. salaris does not parasitise beavers).

While in the statutory six months rabies quarantine, the beavers will also undergo a series of health checks and health screening, tests. Additionally, while in quarantine, and as an extra precaution, the beavers will have access to baths for them to swim in, containing a solution of full strength sea water. The ectoparasite cannot survive in sea water, which is why infection cannot be spread through the natural migration of fish, through the sea.

Furthermore, beavers will be taken from a Norwegian population which is currently reported as being in an area free of G. salaris.

This trial reintroduction of beavers is a project that was devised and proposed by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. It is right therefore that these organisations should bear the cost of the project. Scottish Natural Heritage are funding some of the costs associated with monitoring the project. There was no question of the Scottish Government funding the project itself.