Chamber and committees

Information from the Financial Services Authority indicates that five credit unions have been registered in Scotland between March 2001 and December 2002.

The aim of the action plan is to remove barriers to credit union growth and ensure credit unions have access to support and development services. To date, the Executive's funding is providing support through compliance training, health checks and business planning. Funding has also been provided for capacity building that will help credit unions to extend their membership and the services they offer. We are currently monitoring the outcomes of the Executive's investment.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-31891 today. 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/webapp/search_wa.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-31891 today. 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/webapp/search_wa.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-31891 today. 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/webapp/search_wa.

The North Sea sandeel fishery is spread across the North Sea with the highest volume of landings reported from the area between 54 and 59 degrees latitude excluding the Wee Bankie area which has been closed to sandeel fishing since 2000 as a result of UK intervention. Few of the vessels involved in the sandeel fishery are Scottish, and the Scottish Executive does not hold data on the activity of foreign vessels that have not landed into Scotland.Marine environments are complex systems of multiple interactive influences including food chains, predation and human activities including fishing. The precise effects of any single influence are therefore not known although it is recognised that there is some whitefish by-catch. Monitoring of this fishery is conducted through the normal logbook requirements; a scientific sampling plan applies for the small-scale scientific fishery in the Wee Bankie box.Measures to reduce effort in all fisheries that result in increased mortality rates of cod are under serious consideration. These include the sandeel fishery. It should be noted that the most effective means of reducing whitefish by-catch in this fishery appears to be by reduction of fishing effort and not by the introduction of additional technical conservation measures. The UK has previously expressed concerns about the effects of industrial fishing and has signalled to the Commission and to member states its determination to see a reduction in the sandeel TAC for 2003 to ensure that allowable catches of whitefish stocks will be prioritised for human consumption.

Rapid Response Units are part of the Priority Based Dispatch system and will be dispatched, where operational, to all Category A calls when an accident and emergency unit (AEU) cannot be on scene within eight minutes.The decision to send either the Cardiac Response Unit or an AEU with the facility to thrombolyse a "chest pain" patient is based on distance. The nearest available resource would be sent.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-31891 today. 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/webapp/search_wa.

The information requested is not held centrally. I refer the member to page 100 of the recent Advisory Committee on Fishery Management report which can be accessed on the ICES website http://www.ices.dk/.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-31891 today. 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/webapp/search_wa.