Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S2W-06800

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what arrangements have been made for environmental groups and others to peer review the farm scale evaluations, as referred to in A Partnership for a Better Scotland.

The results of the farmscale evaluations were peer reviewed and published in the PhilosophicalTransactions of The Royal Society: Biological Sciences. They wereimmediately forwarded to the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment(ACRE) for advice on the implications for the possible commercialisation ofthese specific GM crops.

In line with the PartnershipAgreement, environmental groups and other interested parties were invited tosubmit their comments on the results to ACRE. In addition ACRE accepted the Executive’s invitation to hold an openmeeting in Edinburgh, on 4 December 2003, to afford Scottishstakeholders the opportunity to present oral evidence and discuss the results.

All oral and written evidence,including the outcomes of the Edinburgh meeting, were considered by ACRE beforethey gave their advice to government.

Question reference: S2W-06793

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is anticipated that the commercial growing conditions of genetically modified crops, such as Chardon LL mai'e, will replicate the conditions of the UK farm scale evaluation trials.

Question reference: S2W-06795

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions have taken place with members of the Welsh Assembly Government in respect of the approval of Chardon LL mai'e; on what dates the discussions took place, and what the outcomes were.

Question reference: S2W-06758

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has responsibility, under Article 11 of the EC Habitats Directive, for the surveillance of the conservation status of priority habitats and species in Scotland and, if not, where the responsibility lies.

Question reference: S2W-06761

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many sites containing (a) active raised bog and (b) degraded raised bog capable of regeneration there are in Scotland.

The Scottish NaturalHeritage report An inventory of lowland raised bogs in Great Britain (Lindsay, R.A. and Immirzi, P., 1996) identifies 807 raised bog sitesin Scotland. Of these, 281 are identified as supporting areas ofactive bog, and 344 supporting areas of degraded bog capable of regeneration. Itis important to note that the figures for degraded bog capable of regenerationrefer to sites supporting some area of vegetation capable of restoration to bogvegetation. This does not necessarily imply that each site as a whole iscapable of regeneration.

Question reference: S2W-06757

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the current European Commission guidance is on the area and number and/or distribution of sites for active raised bog and degraded raised bog capable of regeneration needing to be protected with Special Area for Conservation status within Scotland.

Article 4.1 of the Habitats Directive provides guidance on the selection process for SpecialAreas of Conservation. This states that member states should propose a list ofsites based on the criteria laid out in Annex III of the Directive and relevantscientific information. On the basis of these criteria, member states will designateareas according to their relative value for the conservation of each naturalhabitat type identified in Annex I of the Directive.

Theweb link to the Habitats Directive is:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/nature/habdir.htm.

In accordance with Article4.2 the UK list of raised bog sites has been the subject of detailed discussionwith the European Commission.

Question reference: S2W-06762

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the area of (a) active raised bog and (b) degraded raised bog capable of regeneration is included in currently proposed Special Areas for Conservation

Question reference: S2W-06763

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the number of sites containing (a) active raised bog and (b) degraded raised bog capable of regeneration is included in currently proposed Special Areas for Conservation.

Twenty five sites have been designated as candidate SpecialAreas of Conservation for active raised bog in Scotland. This is around 9% of the sites identified as supporting some amount of active bog in the ScottishNatural Heritage report An inventory of lowland raised bogs in Great Britain (Lindsay, R.A. and Immirzi,P., 1996).

Twenty two sites have beendesignated as candidate Special Areas of Conservation for degraded raised bogstill capable of natural regeneration. This is just over 6% of the sitesidentified as supporting some amount of bog capable of regeneration in the samereport.

Many of the sites describedin the inventory are small remnants of previously larger sites.

Question reference: S2W-06796

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether experiences of farmers in North America have informed any decision on the possible future of genetically modified organisms.

The Executive’s policy on GMcrops is based on all relevant information.

Farming conditions in North Americaare vastly different to farming conditions in Scotland. As such theexperiences of North American farmers are not directly relevant to the Scottishsituation. However, our expert advisory committees continually monitor all newscientific developments and if necessary update their advice.

Unlike North American governments,we intend to introduce statutory co-existence measures to protect the interestsof non-GM farmers.

Question reference: S2W-06798

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ask Scottish Natural Heritage to consider designating Aucheninnes Moss as a Special Area of Conservation, in light of the recent survey report by Richard Lindsay for the Invertebrate Conservation Trust that shows that the area fits the EU Habitats Directive habitat category "degraded raised bog capable of regeneration" and contains areas fitting the priority habitat category "active raised bog".