Chamber and committees

The consultation exercise into our proposals to establish a national park in the Cairngorms area has only recently finished. The responses are now being reviewed. We hope to complete that process shortly and will then bring forward a draft designation order for Parliamentary consideration.

It is not possible to provide details of the amounts paid to individual former members of the Scottish Bus Group Pension Schemes, as to do so may breach the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998.

The future development of Land Management Contracts is being considered in a working group comprising a range of industry stakeholders. The working group is scheduled to report on this work to the Agriculture Strategy Implementation Group in early October. Decisions on the level of resources necessary to develop Land Management Contracts will be made in the light of both the report and the advice of the Agriculture Strategy Implementation Group.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-28859 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 see no reason why responsible canoeists and angling should not be able to co-exist on the same stretch of water. I understand that the current voluntary code relating to canoeing and angling works well and this will be reinforced by guidance in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. Section 6(f)(ii) of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill excludes from access rights land developed or set out for a particular recreational purpose while in use for that purpose. It applies to rivers navigable by canoe but is not intended to permit fishermen to prohibit canoeists from exercising access rights in relation to a river when fishing is under way. I accept, however, that the provision as presently drafted may in some cases be legitimately used for that purpose. For example, the construction of pools in a river bed for the purpose of fisheries management would be caught by that provision and fishermen could claim that access rights are not exercisable in relation to any such river when fishing is under way. That is not our policy. Amendment 153 to the bill seeks to address this issue and we have indicated that we would be content to accept it. This amendment would have the effect that rivers developed for fishing will not be excluded, under section 6(f), from the responsible exercise of access rights when fishing is taking place.

I wrote to HM Treasury on 9 August 2002 asking for further consideration to be given to the tax charge applicable in respect the ex-gratia payments. I await a reply.Where the principal beneficiary died on or after 18 December 2000, but before a payment is made, a full payment will be made to the widow or widower, or estate. Unmarried partners of deceased former members will also receive the full payment, subject to appropriate evidence that the relationship constituted a marriage by habit or repute.

There have been no prosecutions under section 272 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997.

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.