- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 March 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 10 April 2017
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-04367 by Fergus Ewing on 10 November 2016, of the trips identified in the years 2014 to 2016 by vessels participating in the remote electronic monitoring fully documented fisheries schemes operated by Marine Scotland, what percentage of (a) total trips and (b) hauls taken do these represent.
Answer
The following table sets out the number of trips undertaken by all Scottish registered fishing vessels in the specified period against the recorded number of trips undertaken by the vessels participating in the Fully Documented Fishing Schemes in the each year. The number of individual hauls is not recorded.
Remote Electronic Monitoring equipment is not deployed for compliance purposes. Participation in the Fully Documented Fisheries scheme is voluntary and primarily focused on scientific data gathering in collaboration with Masters and crew.
Year
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No of FDF/REM monitored fishing trips by collaborating Scottish vessels
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Total number of recorded fishing trips by all Scottish vessels
|
% of fishing trips monitored by FD/REM
|
2014
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1,123
|
24,406
|
4.6
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2015
|
786
|
22,892
|
3.4
|
2016
|
709
|
23,102
|
3.1
|
Total
|
2,618
|
70,400
|
3.7
|
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 March 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 31 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of designated areas have seen (i) an improvement in, (ii) no improvement to and (iii) a decline in their Favourable status after three years of being included in a Delivering Favourable Condition Partnership action plan.
Answer
Of a total of 5,368 designated features of Sites of Special Scientific Interest and Natura sites across Scotland, 556 have been included in a Delivering Favourable Condition Partnership Action Plan. After three years of these features being included in an Action Plan:
i) 183 (32.9%%) have improved in condition;
ii) 201 (36.2%) have not yet improved from an unfavourable condition; and
iii) 58 (10.4%) have declined in condition.
In addition, 114 features (20.5%) have retained their ‘favourable’ status or their ‘unfavourable recovering due to management’ status by renewing arrangements to support sympathetic management, where failure to take this action would result in the features slipping into unfavourable condition.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 March 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what target it has for the (a) number and (b) percentage of trips in 2017 by Scottish vessels that will be accompanied by fisheries observers.
Answer
The Marine Scotland Science (MSS) scientific observer programme is scheduled to carry out a total of 80 trips on demersal trawlers and 226 trips on Nephrops trawlers. The programme is expected to cover around 2% of the fishing trips of Scottish demersal trawlers and 1 % of the fishing trips of Scottish Nephrops trawlers and amount to 0.5% of fishing trips of the entire Scottish fleet.
The aim of the scientific observer programme is not for enforcement but to fulfil the requirement of EU regulation 199/2008 to collect biological information (quantity, species, length and age) on the fish caught, for the purposes of stock assessment and fisheries management.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 March 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 29 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-04367 by Fergus Ewing on 10 November 2016, how many vessels will be participating in the remote electronic monitoring fully documented fisheries schemes operated by Marine Scotland in 2017.
Answer
Up to 4 trawlers are anticipated to participate in the 2017 Saithe and Monkfish FDF scheme, which will run between April 2017 and December 2017. Up to 10 scallop boats may also participate in a separate FDF scheme scheduled to run between June and December.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 March 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 28 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what consultations it has carried out with relevant stakeholders regarding the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division holding joint planning appeals, and what steps were taken to ensure public engagement in such consultations.
Answer
The vast majority of planning appeals are delegated to a Scottish Government reporter who is appointed by Scottish Ministers to make a decision on their behalf. It is at the appointed person’s discretion to decide whether further procedure is needed to obtain further information and if so, the most effective and efficient method of obtaining it. All interested parties who have made representations in respect of each appeal are given the opportunity to confirm their objection or support to each proposal in writing or to participate at hearing or inquiry sessions where relevant.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 March 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 28 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division to establish criteria for holding joint planning appeals.
Answer
The vast majority of planning appeals are delegated to a Scottish Government reporter who is appointed by Scottish Ministers to make a decision on their behalf. It is at the appointed person’s discretion to decide whether further procedure is needed to obtain further information and if so, the most effective and efficient method of obtaining it.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of recent findings by the Accounts Commission regarding declining local authority budgets for street cleaning, what support it will offer to local authorities that have also seen declining levels of street cleanliness.
Answer
The Scottish Government is already revising guidance that will help local authorities and others to fulfil their duties to keep land clear of litter and refuse, and roads clean.
This guidance, which will be laid in Parliament in the coming months, will support duty holders in taking action which prevents litter from arising in the first place - aiming to reduce the amount of resources being spent on cleaning up other people’s mess.
Scottish Government revenue funding for local authorities is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. Local authorities are expected to use resources as efficiently and effectively as possible to ensure taxpayers get the best possible services and value for money.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the impact that reductions in street cleanliness have on the (a) environment and (b) tourism industry.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.
Litter and flytipping have no place within the circular economy that we want to move towards. It is also important for tourism that Scotland is always presented at its best.
Our National Litter Strategy sets out how Scotland can significantly reduce litter and flytipping, and support cleaner, safer communities. Its focus is on encouraging personal responsibility to prevent the problems in the first place.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 22 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the scheme, Zero Waste Zones, and whether it will publish any reports regarding this.
Answer
The Zero Waste Zones initiative was a pilot developed by Zero Waste Scotland in 2011-12 to provide an award framework for communities, schools or workplaces taking action to reduce waste. Sixteen pilot projects were developed.
Learning from the pilots was taken forward into the business-focused Resource Efficiency Pledge scheme, launched in 2014. Around 200 organisations have progressed through the Resource Efficiency Pledge scheme.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 March 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 22 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on supporting "design" within a circular economy, and whether it will publish any reports regarding this.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s circular economy strategy, ‘Making Things Last’ sets out our priorities for supporting circular economy design, bringing together specialist circular economy support from Zero Waste Scotland, and mainstream business and design support from the enterprise agencies.
The Scottish Government does not hold detailed information on delivery of this support.