Chamber and committees

Decisions to authorise the commercial importation or cultivation of any GM crop will be taken by the EU member states collectively, working with the European Commission, in the context of Directive 2001/18. These decisions are taken on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the criteria set out in the directive. The Scottish Executive is consulted by the UK Government on all applications. The Executive's views, which must be based on scientific evidence, are taken into account in the formulation of the UK's position.The Executive considers that it would be premature to consent to applications in advance of the outcome of the GM public debate.

Data on emissions of greenhouse gases in the UK and its constituent countries are available in a publication entitled Greenhouse Gas Inventories for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The latest available data are for 1999 and can be found through a link on the Executive's climate change website at www.scotland.gov.uk/climatechange. Also, on behalf of the UK Government, the National Environmental Technology Centre maintains a database of all UK greenhouse gas emissions. The most recent UK-wide data available are for 2000, which can be accessed directly at www.aeat.co.uk/netcen/airqual/statbase/emissions/ghouse1.html. With regard to 2000-02 emissions data for Scotland, I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-34051 on 25 February 2003. 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 UK share of the EU Kyoto target is a 12.5% reduction in 1990 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2008-12. The Executive is working in partnership with the UK Government to meet this commitment and latest projections suggest that the UK is well on course to achieve, and is likely to exceed, the required emissions reductions. Through the European Climate Change Programme, Community-wide measures such as the proposed Community greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme, are being introduced to assist the EU as a whole to meet its Kyoto obligations.

UK greenhouse gas emissions data, including carbon dioxide, has been disaggregated to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland annually since 2000, when data for 1990 and 1995 was first published. The most recently published data, for 1999, are available in the publication Greenhouse Gas Inventories for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: 1990-1999, available on the Executive's climate change website at www.scotland.gov.uk/climatechange. Emissions data in the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990-2000 are currently being disaggregated to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and Scottish emissions data by source for 2000 is expected to be available later this year. I expect data for 2001 to be available towards the end of this year and data for 2002 to be available towards the end of 2004.

No. Any plan for the construction and operation of a processing plant for energy crops is a commercial decision for those in the renewables industry and agriculture sector to consider. The Executive does not enter into commercial ventures of this nature.

The information requested is provided in the following tables. Figures are annual means for those sites in Scotland which form part of the UK monitoring network.Local authorities also undertake air quality monitoring as part of their responsibilities under the local air quality management regime, but the relevant data from their sites are not held centrally.Lead (Micro g/m³)

	1999	2000	2001	2002
Eskdalemuir	<0.007	0.003	0.002	-
Glasgow	0.020	0.017	0.025	-
Motherwell	0.016	0.009	0.016	-

PM 10 (Micro g/m³)

	1999	2000	2001	2002
Aberdeen	-	19	15	18
Edinburgh Centre	19	23	26	27
Glasgow Centre	23	28	22	20
Glasgow Kerbside1	28	27	31	30
Grangemouth	-	-	-	17

Nitrogen Dioxide (Micro g/m³)

	1999	2000	2001	2002
Aberdeen	-	24	25	27
Dumfries2	-	-	38	38
Edinburgh Centre	42	45	43	48
Glasgow Centre	39	-	34	33
Glasgow City Chambers	51	50	46	47
Glasgow Kerbside	69	72	71	74
Grangemouth	-	-	19	16
Inverness3	-	-	-	22

Carbon Monoxide (mg/m³)

	1999	2000	2001	2002
Aberdeen	-	0.4	0.4	0.4
Dumfries	-	-	-	0.6
Edinburgh Centre	0.5	0.7	0.5	0.4
Glasgow Centre	0.5	0.4	0.5	0.4
Glasgow City Chambers	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.6
Glasgow Kerbside	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.6
Inverness	-	-	-	0.4

Ozone (Micro g/m³)

	1999	2000	2001	2002
Bush Estate	58	54	54	54
Edinburgh Centre	35	30	30	35
Eskdalemuir	56	47	46	48
Glasgow Centre	33	33	33	34
Strath Vaich	74	66	-	69

Sulphur Dioxide (Micro g/m³)

	1999	2000	2001	2002
Aberdeen	-	-	5	6
Edinburgh Centre	4	6	5	7
Glasgow Centre	11	10	10	7
Grangemouth	-	-	9	6

Notes:1. Kerbside monitoring sites are situated no more than 1 m from the kerb. There are only four such sites in the UK and they are used for assessing worst case scenarios. Most urban sites are classified as either background or centre and are intended to be broadly representative of public exposure levels.2,3. Dumfries and Inverness are roadside sites, which are situated between 1 m and 5 m from the kerb.

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997, as amended, already do this.

Directive 94/62/EC requires a minimum of 50% of packaging to be recovered by 30 June 2001. The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 were introduced to achieve this.

This is a matter for British Energy to decide, once they receive a request to renew their subscription.

The future funding of the school will, as with all other local authority schools in the area, be a matter for Stirling Council.