- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 10 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what consultation it had with the farm businesses regarding whether they wanted to move from the Cattle Tracing System to ScotMoves+, and whether it will publish the associated documents relating to this.
Answer
ScotEID in partnership with Scottish Government issued a press release in mid-September 2019 in relation to developments on cattle electronic identification (EID), electronic data transfer (EDT) and changes to systems for the registration of cattle in Scotland. The ScotEID team then completed more than 30 roadshow events across Scotland during the autumn and winter of 2019-2020, speaking to around 1800 cattle keepers.
The primary aim of the roadshows was to demonstrate EID technologies and gather views on the operation of the new systems on ScotEID for cattle identification, registration and movements. The feedback from these roadshows was positive and supportive of the use of EID technology. At present, CTS is unable to support the transition to EID and EDT, the ScotMoves + functionality will do so. Further information is available on the ScotEID website.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 10 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government which industry groups it consulted prior to its decision to establish ScotMoves+.
Answer
Scottish Government have worked with the industry for more than 10 years during the development of the ScotEID system, as a multi-species database for recording births, deaths and movements of livestock. The purpose of the system is to support disease prevention, control and eradication and the protection of public health, whilst maintaining national and international trade. The development of ScotMoves+ is the final element of additional functionality for the recording of cattle information onto ScotEID.
The following groups have been involved in an industry-SG working group during this work: National Farmers Union Scotland, Scottish Beef Association, Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers in Scotland, Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers, Scottish Crofters Federation, Scottish Dairy Cattle Association and Quality Meat Scotland.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 10 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason livestock farms are being asked to move from the Cattle Tracing System to ScotMoves+.
Answer
The Cattle Tracing System (CTS) which currently records all GB cattle births, deaths and movements is being replaced. CTS was introduced in 1998 and has served the industry exceptionally well, however due to its age it is now a legacy IT system.
The ScotEID system, originally developed to implement sheep Electronic Identification (EID), is modern, flexible and able to support the introduction of bovine EID and electronic data transfer (EDT).
ScotMoves+ is an extension of ScotMoves, which was introduced in 2017 and is already used by around 50% of Scottish keepers to record within-business cattle movements (previously CTS linked holdings). ScotEID has been used since 2013 to implement Scotland’s Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) eradication programme, it has also been used to implement the Beef Efficiency Scheme and the Scotch Beef Potential Eligibility Checker (SPECC) and is therefore familiar to a high proportion of Scottish cattle keepers.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 10 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what the average cost is for farmers to transfer from the Cattle Tracing System to ScotMoves+.
Answer
There is no additional cost for farmers when they transfer from CTS to the new ScotMoves+ system.
Cattle keepers who use farm management software to assist with their farm record-keeping and other operational decisions incur an annual support cost of around
£200 per year. Some cattle keepers who are using out-of-date farm management software or not paying annual support fees will typically pay a £100 set-up fee, plus an annual support fee of £200 per year to re-join a farm management system.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it reduced the budget under the heading, Cultural Collections, by £3.5 million in its 2021-22 budget, compared with its 2020-21 budget.
Answer
Within the Cultural Collections budget line for 2021-22 the 3 National Collections (National Galleries of Scotland, National Library of Scotland, and National Museums Scotland) saw increases to resource budgets of over £1 million to support the public sector pay settlement.
There was a reduction to capital budgets within the cultural collections and other cultural capital lines of £4.75 million due to the profile of capital commitments. In 2021-22 the capital allocation for the cultural collections decreased due to the commitment to the Scottish National Gallery project reducing compared to 2020-21; and completion of some capital commitments for National Museums Scotland.
The Other Cultural Capital budget line saw a reduction of £3.4 million due to the Scottish Government completing its funding commitments to several capital projects in 2020-21. These include the Paisley Museum project with £2 million committed in total, £750k of which was provided in 2020-21; Citizens Theatre project with £2 million committed in total, £1.25 million of which was provided in 2020-21; and Burrell Collection project with a £5.75 million total commitment including £650k in 2020-21, and an uplift of £750k in Covid emergency support delivered in 2020-21.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 September 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 9 September 2021
To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on HIAL’s proposed centralisation of air traffic control services.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 9 September 2021
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in the Scottish National Party election manifesto, what action it is taking to ensure that Scotland’s historic estate meets its net zero obligations.
Answer
The Scottish Government is working with stakeholders, including Historic Environment Scotland, to develop further solutions to transition Scotland’s historic buildings to net zero emissions while respecting and preserving their special characteristics. We are also continuing to build our evidence base and the guidance available for the transition of these buildings, to ensure net zero targets are met.
The lead public body for the sector, Historic Environment Scotland, has published a series of ‘Managing Change in the Historic Environment’ technical guides on its website, as well as ‘Climate Change Adaptation for Traditional Buildings’ and promotes this expertise to a range of property owners.
The Draft Heat in Buildings Strategy , published earlier this year, sets out the Scottish Government’s approach for transforming Scotland’s buildings, and the systems that supply their heat, to ensure all properties are energy efficient – meeting a minimum standard equivalent to EPC C where technically feasible and cost-effective - by 2035 and reach net zero emissions by 2045.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 6 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish National Party manifesto commitment to reform crofting law, what its position is on introducing an exemption for crofting tenancies from local authority care charges.
Answer
The issue of the legal protection of crofts from local authority care charges was the subject of a petition for consideration by the Public Petitions Committee. In response to this petition the Scottish Government has stated that consideration on how best to apply the regulations lies with local authorities.
The National Assistance (Assessment of Resources) Regulations 1992 and associated Charging for Residential Accommodation Guidance (CRAG), provide the framework for local authorities to charge for the residential care that they provide or arrange. It is for local authorities to interpret the Regulations in applying their policies.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 6 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to commemorate Merchant Navy Day 2021.
Answer
As we have done in previous years, the Scottish Government flew the Red Ensign from its main buildings on 3 September as a sign of respect and recognition of the sacrifices made by our Merchant Navy Seafarers. In addition, we issued social media via the Scottish Government’s Veterans account to raise awareness of the key role played by the men and women of the Merchant Navy both today and throughout its illustrious history.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 September 2021
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it reduced the budget under the heading, Creative Scotland and Other Arts, by £4.1 million in its 2021-22 budget, compared with its 2020-21 budget.
Answer
There were two specific reasons for the £4.1 million reduction. The 2021-22 budget maintained all existing funding commitments. The Other Arts budget continues to maintain support for important ongoing commitments such as Scottish Screen, the Youth Music Initiative, and our major Festivals.
The first reason was that no provision was made for loans under the Financial Transactions (FT) mechanism as there was no requirement for FTs to be administered by Creative Scotland in 2021-22. This has resulted in a £1.09m decrease.
The second change was in relation to the ‘Other Arts’ line where revenue funding fell by £3.17m year on year. The decrease of £3.1 million was due to a technical change agreed with Creative Scotland, whereby Scottish Government moved £3.1 million of grant funding for Regularly Funded Organisations into 2020-21 from 2021-22. This enabled Creative Scotland to carry over the National Lottery funding in to 2021-22, therefore over the two years Scottish Government is maintaining funding. Creative Scotland confirmed in a statement on 28 January 2021 that they would honour their Regularly Funded Organisations commitment to 2021-22.
