- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 March 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 14 May 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it plans to have with Scottish Borders Council arising from the recent failure by Scottish Power to maintain power supplies to the Borders area.
Answer
None. Scottish Borders Council initiated its local emergency plan and acted upon this in conjunction with Scottish Power, Lothian and Borders Police and other emergency services. Throughout the emergency, officials kept in close touch with Scottish Power and submitted regular reports to ministers to keep them apprised of the overall response to the emergency situation. It will be a matter for Scottish Borders Council to review their emergency planning arrangements to see what, if anything, might be improved.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 14 May 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how much each holder of a concessionary bus pass has to pay annually for this pass in each local authority area.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-13568 on 9 March 2001.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 April 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus MacKay on 10 May 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-14552 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 10 April 2001 regarding the emergency package for businesses affected by foot-and-mouth disease, (a) when the #3.5 million will be allocated, (b) how it will be allocated, (c) how businesses will access this funding, (d) how businesses will access the 75% funding of the costs of hardship relief and (e) whether any publicity material is being circulated to inform businesses of this funding and, if so, by what means and in which areas.
Answer
Businesses should apply to their local authority for hardship relief from rates. The additional funding of hardship relief in the 17 local authority areas will be provided through a redetermination of Revenue Support Grant in the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2002. The scheme is not cash limited and local authorities will need to make claims for this grant to the Scottish Executive by 30 September 2001, giving details of the rate relief given. Guidance has been issued to local authorities and copied to business representative organisations in Scotland. It is also available on the Executive's website
www.scotland.gov.uk/agri/footandmouth under "publications".
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 May 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 10 May 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what Regional Selective Assistance funding has been provided to companies in the Scottish Borders since October 2000.
Answer
In the period 1 October 2000 to 30 April 2001, 10 companies were offered Regional Selective Assistance totalling £4.0 million.This included four companies who were offered Invest for Growth (which is a streamlined version of RSA) amounting to £248,000. The projects attracting these offers involved planned capital investment of £21.5 million by firms in the Scottish Borders and the planned creation and safeguarding there of some 940 jobs.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 May 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-14773 by Ross Finnie on 17 April 2001, whether it will provide on a weekly basis figures for the numbers of animals slaughtered under the Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme and whether it will provide the figures now for those slaughtered from 9 April 2001 to 18 April 2001.
Answer
In the period 9 to 18 April, 92 cattle, 12,120 sheep and 5,840 pigs were slaughtered in abattoirs in Scotland under the Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme. These figures exclude any livestock unfit to travel that would have been slaughtered on farm and do not allow for stock that may have been slaughtered south of the border. As of 24 April a total of 32,575 animals have been slaughtered in abattoirs in Scotland under the scheme.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 May 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Abbatoir at Hawick has applied for certification as a suitable slaughterhouse under the Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme and, if so, when the application was received by the Intervention Board, whether a determination has been made and, if it has not, when it will be made.
Answer
Abattoirs engaged in the slaughter of livestock under the Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme do so under a contractual arrangement with the Intervention Board Executive Agency (IBEA) who operate the scheme, subject to certain licensing requirements as enforced by the Food Standards Agency. I am advised by IBEA that a tender was received from the owners of Hawick abattoir on 20 March but no contractual agreement has been agreed. With four abattoirs in Scotland now contracted to IBEA, significant slaughter capacity is now available to enable the progression of the scheme.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 May 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive which abattoirs which have applied for approval by the Intervention Board for slaughter purposes under the Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme still await a determination, giving the date when the application was lodged for each abattoir.
Answer
The Intervention Board Executive Agency advise me that the abattoir at Annan submitted a tender to operate Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme on 19 March, Kilmarnock on 4 April, Biggar on 23 March, Brechin on 21 March and Hawick on 20 March. All except Hawick, which has not been operational for some time, now have contracts to slaughter animals under the Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 May 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-14775 by Ross Finnie on 17 April 2001, of the 582 applications under the Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme received by 9 April 2001, (a) how many had been processed, (b) how many had been rejected and (c) how many of those passed for slaughter had been slaughtered, as at 18 April 2001.
Answer
Since 17 April, the Intervention Board Executive Agency have entered all applications to the Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme on to a database which has enabled duplicate applications to be identified. Consequently, I am now advised by IBEA that there were a total of 405 applications to the scheme in Scotland as of 17 April. These applications have been processed; none have been rejected although supporting veterinary information has been requested for a number of applications to confirm the existence of a welfare problem. As of 24 April, a total of 32,575 animals had been slaughtered in abattoirs in Scotland under the scheme. Officials from my department have since been working with the Intervention Board Executive Agency in the processing of Scottish applications. This will help to speed up the processing of claims.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 May 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-14773 by Ross Finnie on 17 April 2001, whether the Intervention Board is meeting the target of making payments to farmers under the Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme within 21 days of slaughter and, if not, what timescales it is achieving.
Answer
I am advised by the Intervention Board Executive Agency that to date, 55% of payments have been made within 21 days of slaughter and the remaining 45% have been made within 30 days of slaughter. The Intervention Board assure me that all efforts are being made to meet their payment target.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 May 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-14776 by Ross Finnie on 17 April 2001, why separate figures are not available for Scotland regarding the number of slaughtered animals under the Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme and whether it will ensure that separate figures are made available.
Answer
The Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme is operated by the Intervention Board Executive Agency on behalf of the GB Agriculture Departments. In the initial phases of the scheme, the main priorities within the Intervention Board lay in establishing the operation of the scheme - including tasks such as creating the call centre and securing slaughtering and rendering capacity. For the most recent statistics regarding the numbers of animals disposed in Scotland I refer to the answer given to question S1W-15158.
