Chamber and committees

This information is not publicly available.

This information is not held centrally. Salmon Fisheries Boards raise their income on the basis of the valuation of salmon fishing rights in their areas but such valuations do not necessarily reflect the value, or even the existence, of commercial lettings.

There are five marine laboratories in Scotland as follows:

Fisheries Research Services (FRS) Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen, an Agency of the Scottish Executive (FRS also comprises the Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory at Faskally).

The Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences, Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, a research institute of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

The Gatty Marine Laboratory, St Andrews, run by the University of St Andrews and incorporating the Sea Mammal Research Unit of NERC.

The Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS), privately funded with facilities operated by the Highlands and Islands University.

The Marine Laboratory Millport (MLM), a small field station and teaching unit run by the Universities of Glasgow and London.

All, with the exception of SAMS and MLM, engage in fisheries research.

Information about the heritable property, including salmon fisheries, is held by the Registers of Scotland, but an analysis in the form requested is not available.

Information on the exact number of defibrillators in use in the NHS in Scotland is not available centrally, but all clinical areas have immediate access to them. All accident & emergency ambulances operated by the Scottish Ambulance Service carry defibrillators and there are others in operational support vehicles. General practitioners also have access to defibrillators, especially those involved in immediate care schemes.

None of these is available in public places for use by trained members of the public. The Coronary Heart Disease Task Force is looking into this issue and will be providing advice to the Scottish Executive.

I refer to the answer to question S1W-6279.

Cancer is one of three clinical priorities for the NHS in Scotland. We have already committed £13.2 million from the NHS Capital Modernisation Fund to provide state of the art linear accelerators and treatment planning computers for the delivery of radiotherapy in Scotland's five cancer centres.

In June this year, I announced the first round of equipment purchases totalling £5.8 million, which will be used to buy four linear accelerators and three simulators. The centres benefiting from the £5.8 million are Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen. Additionally, as a result of separate procurement exercises the cancer centres in Inverness and Glasgow will receive replacement equipment. Inverness have recently installed a simulator and are awaiting delivery of a linear accelerator at a total cost of £1.3 million, while the Glasgow centre will shortly receive a further three linear accelerators costing £2.2 million.

We have considered this matter which will be addressed in our draft Land Reform Bill.

The aggregate sterling value of individual programmes can only be calculated when all projects are completed, and EU funding drawn down from the European Commission. These figures will not be available for the 1994-99 programmes until 2002. We estimate, however, that the final sterling value of programmes will have decreased from the equivalent figures which were announced when the programmes were approved.

The Scottish Executive has ensured that the full Euro value of all programmes has been committed to projects, within the terms of European Regulations. In addition, once individual grant awards have been made their sterling value is guaranteed by the Executive, which will bear any exchange rate loss which results when the final value is known.

Between January and June 1999 the Crown Office ran a series of three-day training courses on ECHR which were attended by all procurators fiscal and all procurators fiscal deputes. A series of two-day courses was then run for all precognition officers. At the courses, all those attending were issued with written guidance appropriate to their work. In the case of procurators fiscal and their deputes, that guidance extends to over 500 pages and addresses all aspects of the prosecution of crime in Scotland. The same written material and a version of the course appropriate to their needs was provided to all Advocate Deputes.

In the autumn of 1999 a series of one-day workshops was run, once again attended by all procurators fiscal and their deputes, at which the training and guidance was revisited in the light of experience of the operation of the Scotland Act. Advocate Deputes received such updated training at their annual seminar in March this year.

All procurators fiscal and deputes have been issued with copies of all devolution issue opinions issued by the High Court and with commentary on those opinions and advice on matters arising from them as appropriate.

All procurators fiscal deputes recruited since June 1999 have attended one of two four-day training courses and have received the written materials described above.

A series of one-day workshops, again for all procurators fiscal and deputes, is in preparation for September this year, ahead of the entry into force of the Human Rights Act 1998 on 2 October.