Chamber and committees

The Minister for Justice announced in the debate, Tackling Drug Misuse, Protecting Scotland’s Communities on 27 October 2004 that funding from assets seized from criminals under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 would be reinvested to support those communities most affected by drugs.

It was also announced that the reinvestment programme would be preceded by a national publicity campaign to encourage communities to report drug dealers to the police through the Crimestoppers confidential helpline. The campaign will be launched soon.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The SPS needs to become more competitive, to use taxpayers money to achieve better value for money and to make a contribution to building a fit for purpose prison estate. This will also improve long-term job security of SPS staff. The SPS has therefore initiated a 5% efficiency target across the service for 2004-05 and 2005-06.

The Environment Agency has a duty under the provisions of Section 25 of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 to regulate fisheries for salmon and trout by a system of licensing, and this duty extends to so much of the Border Esk as lies within Scotland.

No funding has been given by the Scottish Executive to local authorities for specific traffic management projects. The only Executive funding awarded to Dumfries and Galloway Council for specific public transport projects has been from the Public Transport Fund, in line with the guidance issued to local authorities for the relevant bidding round. The following table sets out the total value of allocations awarded to the council from the fund, for those projects involving public transport infrastructure construction and enhancement.

The table also gives the allocations received by the Council for Cycling, Walking and Safer Streets (CWSS) projects. Whilst it is for local authorities to determine what specific projects should be supported with these allocations, we understand that most of Dumfries and Galloway Council’s allocations have gone towards infrastructure construction and enhancement.

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Total Value of PTF Allocations(£ million	0.400	0.320	2.008	2.008	0.513
CWSS Allocations	0.000	0.140	0.079	0.121	0.211

 

Section 25 of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 imposes a duty on the Environment Agency to, by a system of licences, regulate fishing for salmon and trout and, except where excused by a Minister of the Crown, apply the same system to regulate fishing for all freshwater fish or eels. Section 25 applies to England and Wales and to so much of the Esk as is situated in Scotland.

Article 4 of the Scotland Act 1998 (Border Rivers) Order 1999 provides the relevant framework for the Esk to be regulated by the Environment Agency, with any proposals having to be agreed by both Westminster and Scottish ministers.

The duty to regulate fishing on the Border Esk was placed upon the Environment Agency by Section 25 of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975. The Environment Agency has notified the Scottish Executive of how it intends to carry out this obligation.

Under existing financial commitments, Dumfries and Galloway Council has an allocation in 2005-06 of £412,000 from the Public Transport Fund for its southern sector access strategy. The council will also receive cycling, walking and safer streets allocations of £252,000, £256,000 and £262,000 in 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively, which may be used towards infrastructure projects.

The Executive does not collect information on the number of animals which die from ragwort poisoning.

Disease surveillance is carried out by the Scottish Agricultural College Disease Surveillance Centres. I have asked the college to contact the member direct about this matter.

No enforcement orders have been served over the last five years in respect of spear thistle, creeping or field thistle, curled dock or broad-leaved dock.

The number of enforcement orders served in each of the last five years in respect of ragwort is shown in the table below.

2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
0	0	1	1	2

 

No enforcement orders have been served over the last five years in respect of spear thistle, creeping or field thistle, curled dock or broad-leaved dock.

The number of enforcement orders served over the last five years in respect of ragwort, broken down by local authority area, is shown in the following table.

Local Authority	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	Total
Aberdeen City	0	0	0	0	0	0
Aberdeenshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
Angus	0	0	0	0	0	0
Argyll and Bute	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	1	0	0	1
Dundee City	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0	1	0	1
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Lothian	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
City of Edinburgh	0	0	0	0	0	0
Western Isles	0	0	0	0	1	1
Falkirk	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fife	0	0	0	0	0	0
Glasgow City	0	0	0	0	0	0
Highland	0	0	0	0	0	0
Inverclyde	0	0	0	0	0	0
Midlothian	0	0	0	0	0	0
Moray	0	0	0	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	0	0	0	0	0	0
Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scottish Borders	0	0	0	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
South Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	1	1
Stirling	0	0	0	0	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	0
West Lothian	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	0	0	1	1	2	4