- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 11 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made any representations to the European Commission on its responsibilities under the EU LIFE programme to control the predation of capercaillie.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has made no representations to the European Commission in this regard.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 11 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made any representations to the Swedish Government regarding the numbers of capercaillie in Sweden and the measures that the Swedish Government employs to protect capercaillie, and whether the Executive has made any representations on these issues to the European Commission.
Answer
The Scottish Executive hasto date made no representations to the Swedish Government or the EuropeanCommission on this issue.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 September 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive on what date it invited Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to produce a proposal to address the detail of the relocation of SNH's headquarters to Inverness; whether it has received such a proposal from SNH and, if not, whether it will impose a deadline for its submission; how many staff of SNH will remain in Edinburgh and how many will be relocated to the new headquarters, and whether it expects the SNH proposal to address this matter.
Answer
Ross Finnie wrote to the Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) Chairman on 2 September and a ministerialdirection, under section 11 of the Natural Heritage (Scotland)Act 1991, was issued on the same day. The direction requires SNH to produce aproject plan for the relocation andsubmit this to the Scottish ministers by 31 October 2003.The costed project plan will set out allthe stages, dates and progress to be achieved in making the relocation to Inverness happen.
Inresponse to Ross Finnie’s invitation of9 July, SNH has put forward a case to retain a number of staff in Edinburgh,or nearby. No decision has yet been taken on this matter. I expect that detailsof the number of staff remaining in the Edinburgh area will be included in theproject plan.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Minister, or Deputy Minister, for Environment and Rural Development have visited the Ardtoe Marine Farming Unit and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.
Answer
No ministerial visits havebeen made in the recent past.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to safeguard jobs at the Ardtoe Marine Farming Unit; what assistance it will provide to safeguard these jobs, and whether it will make an announcement on the future of the unit before the end of August 2003.
Answer
The Ardtoe Marine FarmingUnit is currently an asset of the Seafish Industry Authority. Any announcementon its present or future operation is a matter for the Seafish Board.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has received regarding research under its strategic framework for aquaculture and when such research will be commissioned through the Scottish Aquaculture Research Forum.
Answer
The Executive has been in discussion with a range ofstakeholders about the establishment of the Scottish Aquaculture Research Forum(SARF). SARF held its first meeting on 2 September where the group consideredadministrative arrangements, membership, budget and possible research topicswhich flow from the Strategic Framework for Aquaculture.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-34338 by Ross Finnie on 7 March 2003, what steps it has taken to support the continued existence of the Ardtoe Marine Farming Unit.
Answer
The Sea Fish IndustryAuthority has operational responsibility for the Ardtoe Marine Farming Unit. Weunderstand that the Seafish Board will meet on 24 September to consider furtherthe future of the unit. The Executive and the Enterprise Network stand ready toassist any prospective operator from within existing grant assistance schemessubject to standing eligibility criteria being met.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received any representations from any potential new owner of the Ardtoe Marine Farming Unit for assistance; if so, on what date any such request was first made, when it responded, and what its response was.
Answer
The Executive has maintained contact with the principals during the on-going negotiations over recent weeks,in the course of which the possibility of financial assistance being providedby the Executive to prospective new owners was discussed. I informed theparties on 16 August that the Executive did not see a case for providing directfinancial support.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 July 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 8 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will place a copy of the unpriced trunk road maintenance contracts with BEAR Scotland Ltd and Amey Highways Ltd in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-25884 on 28 May 2002. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the searchfacility for can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.A generic copy of anunpriced contract document for the South West Unit is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 16573). The terms of each of thefour unit contracts with BEAR Scotland Ltd and Amey Highways Ltd are the sameexcept for references to each unit's trunk roads and the trunk road assetswithin each unit.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 5 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that no auxiliary fire service is terminated without a debate in the Parliament being held on the issue and whether it has any plans to bring forward the proposals previously contained in amendment 59 to section 33 of the Local Government in Scotland Bill, which was defeated in the Stage 3 debate in the Parliament on 8 January 2003.
Answer
The importance which the Executive attaches to the development of the fire service, including the contribution by retained/auxiliary firefighters, was set out in our consultation paper, The Scottish Fire Service of the Future, published in April 2002. The existing statutory framework for the fire service is out of date. Our detailed proposals for modern legislation for a modern fire service - and which will directly increase local decision making to meet local needs in protecting the community - will be set out in a further consultation paper to be published in the autumn.
