Chamber and committees

Fife Council has invited tenders to design and build Markinch interchange, with a closing date of 9 December 2005. The council intends that construction will begin in April 2006, with the project completed by summer 2007.

A report into options for a cross Forth passenger ferry service was completed in October 2004. I understand that the Forth Estuary Transport Authority, City of Edinburgh Council, Fife Council and Forth Ports Authority are commissioning more detailed work on the options identified in that report, with the study due to complete by summer 2006.

The Executive is in regular contact with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on a wide range of issues, including the proposed negotiating lines for EC and international instruments.

The four over-arching multilateral concordats on: the Co-ordination of European Union Policy Issues, Financial Assistance to Industry, International Relations and Statistics, are supplementary agreements to the Memorandum of Understanding, between UK Government, the Scottish Executive, the Cabinet of the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Executive Committee.

The Memorandum of Understanding and supplementary agreements were produced as one document. All versions of the Memorandum of Understanding have been publicly available since the first publication, in 1999. The current version is lodged in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 18798).

The Scottish Executive is in frequent contact with the office of the Deputy Prime Minister on a wide range of issues of the kind referred to in paragraph 14 of the Concordat.

Any changes to policy will only be announced after the responses to the consultation have been received and fully considered by the Executive. At present it is not possible to predict the length of that consideration process.

The literature review has been completed and consideration is now being given to the form the consultation should take. We are now working to a launch date in early 2006. As previously stated, the process will be fully inclusive and allow all interested parties to make their views known. The consultation period will last for at least three months with the results being published in accordance with the Scottish Executive Good Practice Guidance.

I refer to the answer to questionsS1W-28375 on 10 September 2002 and S2W-5062 answered on 19 January 2004. Where discussions result in agreement that thereshould be a further devolution of powers, legislative proposals will continueto be put to the Parliament in the context either of Orders in Council madeunder the Scotland Act 1998 or motions proposed in accordance with the SewelConvention.

I am advised by the Food Standards Agency that 11 farms in Scotland, averaging approximately 1,030 hectares per farm, are still subject to restrictions as a result of the Chernobyl incident. Sheep from these farms are required by the Food Protection (Emergency Prohibitions) (Radioactivity in Sheep) Order 1991 No.20 (as amended), to be monitored for radioactivity prior to being moved off farm.

I am advised by the Food Standards Agency that specific monitoring in Scotland due to the Chernobyl incident is limited to sheep on a few remaining restricted farms. These farms are subject to statutory controls under the terms of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985, which require sheep to be monitored prior to being moved off farm. Additionally, an annual whole flock survey is carried out during the summer on selected farms to assess whether they are suitable for derestriction. The results of this year’s survey are currently being prepared by Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department who undertake the monitoring on behalf of the Food Standards Agency Scotland. Radiological monitoring of food and the environment throughout the UK, including a section on Chernobyl, is reported annually in the Radioactivity in Food and the Environment (RIFE) series of reports, the latest of which (“RIFE 10”) is due for publication at the end of October 2005.