- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the (a) UK Government and (b) European Commission about the future of the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme.
Answer
Scottish Executive officialsare participating in discussions between UK Government and European Commissionofficials about future designation of Less Favoured Areas within the EuropeanUnion. In addition, the Scottish Executive has been discussing the interimScheme for the Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme (LFASS) 2007-2009 with theEuropean Commission in the wider context of the Scotland Rural DevelopmentProgramme (SRDP) for 2007-2013.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to the (a) UK Government and (b) European Commission on designating islands as particularly fragile under the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme.
Answer
I refer the member to the answerto question S3W-629 on 14 June 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can befound at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 June 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it supports the designation of islands as particularly fragile under the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme.
Answer
I refer the member to the answerto 3W-629 on 14 June 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can befound at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 June 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the decision to retain full accident and emergency services at Monklands and Ayr hospitals will have on the (a) current and (b) future budget resources available to NHS Orkney.
Answer
None.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 8 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to raise awareness among oil industry brokers of the ship-to-ship oil transfer options available at Scapa Flow.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has norole in promoting operational activities of specific harbour authorities. That isa matter for the ports sector itself and for individual harbour authorities.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 May 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 7 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will undertake a review of the system of penalties applied to mistakes in applications for agricultural grants and subsidies, and of the associated appeal system, with a view to finding ways of making the system fairer and quicker for farmers and crofters.
Answer
We shall be having early discussionswith key stakeholders on general issues surrounding the implementation of the commonagricultural policy. We shall also be undertakinga review of the EU agricultural subsidies appeals procedure.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 4 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will direct (a) Scottish Enterprise and (b) Scottish Development International to consider ways in which support can be provided to those seeking to attract more ship-to-ship oil transfer business to Scapa Flow.
Answer
No. This would be an operationalmatter for the enterprise networks. To date neither of these organisations has beenapproached with regard to the promotion of this type of business activity at Scapa Flow.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 4 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what additional steps it considers might be taken to attract overseas buyers to Scottish craft trade shows.
Answer
Responsibility for internationaleconomic activity such as promoting Scotland as a place to do business in and with rests with ScottishDevelopment International (SDI). The craft industry is not currently an SDIpriority. We are happy to support priority companies but this may not translateinto directly supporting overseas buyers. SDI is not aware of any evidence of failurewithin the craft industry to attract buyers, though SDI would be happy to discusswith industry representatives how we can best support the craft industry in thefuture.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 4 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will support a programme of visits by North American buyers to Scottish craft businesses to take place between the major craft shows in Glasgow and Dublin in January 2008.
Answer
Responsibility for internationaleconomic activity such as promoting Scotland as a place to do business in and with rests with ScottishDevelopment International (SDI). The craftindustry is not currently an SDI priority industry and SDI currently has no plansto support a programme of visits by North American buyers to Scottish craft businesses.We are not aware of any evidence of failure within the industry to attract overseasbuyers, though SDI would be happy to discuss with industry representatives how wecan best support the craft industry in the future.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 May 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 4 June 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps have been taken to attract overseas buyers to Scottish craft trade shows in each of the last four years.
Answer
Responsibility for internationaleconomic activity such as promoting Scotland as a place to do business in and with rests with ScottishDevelopment International (SDI). The craft industry is not currently an SDI priorityindustry and over the last four years SDIhas not been involved in attracting overseas buyers to Scottish craft trade shows.We are not aware of any evidence of failure within the industry to attract overseasbuyers, though SDI would be happy to discuss with industry representatives how wecan best support the craft industry in the future.
