Chamber and committees

I announced on 12 August 2002 that an additional £8 million had been secured by Scottish ministers, bringing the total amount to be distributed to £126 million, and that letters were being sent to eligible former Scottish Transport pension scheme members to initiate the payment process.

An initial payment representing most of the overall total will be made to identified beneficiaries this financial year, with the remaining amount paid in the next financial year once the details of all those who are eligible are known.

The Scottish Public Pensions Agency began making payments on 31 August 2002.

I refer the member to my letter to the Convener of the Scottish Public Petitions Committee dated 9 August 2002, a copy of which I understand has been sent to the member.

All GPs are eligible for an annual payment (currently £2,510) for providing out of hours services and for a night visit fee (currently £25.10) for each face to face consultation carried out between the hours of 10pm and 8am. These fees and allowances are prescribed in the Statement of Fees and Allowances payable to GPs and are paid from the NHS Board's General Medical Services demand-led budget. In addition, NHS Island Boards and Primary Care Trusts assist in the provision of out of hours services in their area by providing funding from the Out of Hours Development Fund. The fund forms part of the overall cash limited budget given to boards each year. The following table provides a breakdown of each area's expenditure on out-of-hours services from the development fund over the last three years. The table also shows the estimated expenditure for the current year. Information on the estimated costs for the next two years is not available.Breakdown of NHS Board Expenditure On Out Of Hours Provision

Primary Care Trust/ Island NHS Board	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03Forecast Expenditure
Argyll and Clyde	510,890	584,508	543,384	522,000
Ayrshire and Arran	750,490	747,075	819,289	792,058
Borders	192,342	215,650	226,841	243,009
Dumfries and Galloway	320,784	377,615	426,766	374,932
Fife	353,767	410,455	421,900	437,000
Forth Valley	297,592	303,419	370,084	334,000
Grampian	555,530	611,709	708,455	732,000
Greater Glasgow	1,803,000	1,496,188	1,531,000	1,567,000
Highland	343,508	406,386	429,841	305,000
Lanarkshire	496,384	507,019	511,740	567,000
Lothian	1,506,791	1,549,537	1,669,086	1,645,645
Orkney NHS Board	35,411	43,567	33,395	41,000
Shetland NHS Board	23,944	22,782	23,272	29,000
Tayside	404,794	459,181	520,727	549,600
Western Isles NHS Board	54,265	45,500	47,000	47,000
Scotland Total	7,649,492	7,780,591	8,282,780	8,186,244

No such approval has been given.

Sportscotland does not recognise the annual match between the shinty players of Scotland and the hurlers of Ireland as there is no international federation for shinty under whose auspices international competitions can take place. This is a matter for sportscotland and the Executive has no plans to intervene.

We hope to address this in the autumn negotiations on TACs.

The UK submitted evidence to the Commission on several occasions in 2001 to illustrate that higher landings of nephrops did not result in higher landings of cod. The specific nature of this correspondence is confidential.

The Scottish Executive, Scottish Natural Heritage and other agencies already offer advice to local authorities on a variety of control measures which can be taken against seagulls, including measures under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.In a situation where it is considered that attacks from seagulls pose a threat to human life, it is the responsibility of individual local authorities to decide upon the most appropriate course of action. Adequate powers to take the necessary steps are already available to local authorities as part of their environmental health responsibilities and this may include lethal control of seagulls.