- Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers the formal public consultation that NHS Dumfries and Galloway is undertaking on service delivery change to be a statutory requirement or an administrative requirement imposed by ministers.
Answer
The National Health Service Reform (Scotland) Act 2004 introduced a duty on NHS boards to consult with local people on the planning and development of healthcare services; and on decisions to be made by boards that would significantly affect the operation of healthcare services.
- Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the principles of administrative justice and law apply to the formal public consultation on service delivery change being undertaken by NHS Dumfries and Galloway.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30212 on 6 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: Jim Hume, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 14 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how its agencies are working with energy co-operatives to help meet its renewable energy targets.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises the value of the co-operative business model as a way of financing renewable energy projects. This is reflected in the membership of the new Community Renewables Implementation Group, a subgroup of the Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland (FREDS) which includes a number of parties promoting the co-operative model.
In addition, the co-operative model for renewable energy projects is one of the options suggested to communities in the Scottish Government''s Community Renewable Energy Toolkit, available online at http://www.scotland.gov.uk
- Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 11 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on replacing PFI with a new tripartite form of financing involving government, private and co-operative partners.
Answer
The Scottish Government supports the use of the Non Profit Distributing (NPD) model of finance for public infrastructure. The NPD structure has both public and private sector financial involvement, alongside enhanced stakeholder involvement in the management of projects.
The Scottish Futures Trust will continue to develop this method of funding to further improve the value for money it can deliver to the taxpayer.
- Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 November 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 2 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the sheep electronic identification scheme will be subject to the Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition standards.
Answer
No. Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition relates to the maintenance of land. However, electronic identification of sheep does form part of one of the statutory management requirements of cross compliance covering identification and traceability of sheep and goats.
- Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 November 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 2 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive in what circumstances farmers would be penalised for breaching the Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition standards in the context of the sheep electronic identification scheme and how that penalty would be applied.
Answer
Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition relates to the maintenance of land. However, electronic identification (EID) of sheep does form part of one of the statutory management requirements of cross compliance covering identification and traceability of sheep and goats.
Where it is found at inspection that a keeper has not complied with the statutory management requirements, a breach will be recorded and this shall result in a percentage reduction in payments due to the business.
The inspection process and penalties cannot be confirmed until final decisions are made on the implementation of the requirements following the consultation on sheep EID which finished on 2 November 2009. The inspection process shall be designed to take into account practical issues and be as efficient and effective as possible.
- Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 26 November 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met bee health stakeholders; what the outcome was, and whether the minutes are available to MSPs.
Answer
Scottish Government officials last met with stakeholders/commercial beekeepers on 11 September 2009. These beekeepers were trained in the safe use and administration of the antibiotic Oxytetracycline for the treatment of European Foul Brood only. Following successful completion of the training course attendees were given temporary authorised person status (until 30 November 2009) which has enabled them to administer the treatment of antibiotic to hives in their ownership.
As this was primarily a training course, minutes of this meeting were not taken.
- Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 26 November 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what the timetable is for its bee health strategy.
Answer
In view of the unprecedented scale and seriousness of the ongoing bee disease outbreaks in Scotland this summer and autumn, Scottish Government officials are taking time to consider the valuable lessons we have learned from this experience and incorporate these into the strategy.
The strategy will be published when this process is completed.
- Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 26 November 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive on what date bee inspectors last made an inspection and how many inspections have taken place in each of the last three years.
Answer
The latest bee inspection by Scottish Government Bee Inspectors was made during week commencing 2 October 2009.
Inspections are completed only when a beekeeper has notified the relevant authority of their suspicion of a notifiable disease.
The following inspections have taken place in each of the last three years:
Year 2009: 2,844 hives from 294 apiaries have been inspected (following the recent notifiable disease outbreak),
Year 2008: none,
Year 2007: two.
- Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 26 November 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many times the specialist bee adviser at the Scottish Agricultural College has provided training to beekeepers.
Answer
During this financial year the apiculture specialist at the Scottish Agricultural College has delivered 20 formal training courses to date with a further six planned. Evening lectures and workshops to beekeeping associations throughout Scotland are also provided, 11 to date with a further five planned in this financial year.
Training, education and advice has also been given to commercial beekeepers on site visits during the recent notifiable disease outbreaks.
