Chamber and committees

This information requested isset out in the following table;

Local Authority	Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative (SCHRI) Grant (subsequent to information provided in S2W-28485)
Aberdeen City	£23,701
Fife	£2,641.55
Highland	£70,546
North Lanarkshire	£109,576
Stirling	£15,000

 

In addition, since the questionin October, we have offered grant funding of £400,000 to support the installationof biomass heating in the Perth and Kinross PPP Schools Project.

Entitlement trading is required by EC regulations; it facilitatesthe development of farm businesses, for example, following mergers, splits or inheritanceof farms. The Executive recognises that access to entitlements would help new entrantsby providing a stream of income through Single Farm Payments. There are, however,other significant barriers to entry, including the price and availability of land,and access to working capital. New entrants who entered farming immediately afterthe reference period (2000-02) were eligible to apply to the National Reserve forentitlements. When it is approved, the Scottish Rural Development Plan will containa series of measures that will be attractive to new entrants.

Voluntary modulation will be used in Scotland in order to delivera credible Scotland Rural Development Programme that supports our priority outcomesfor rural Scotland. I cannot confirm the rate until the European voluntary modulationregulation has been finalised. If the final version of the regulation permits, Iconfirm that Scotland will set its own rate of voluntary modulation.

Support payments to the dairysector are incorporated into the decoupled Single Farm Payment (SFP) agreed as partof the 2003 CAP reforms. Decoupling subsidies for production was a requirement ofWorld Trade Organization agreements. The Dairy Premium and Additional Payment arebased on quota held at the qualifying date of 31 March 2004. The principle of decouplingallows farmers to make production decisions in response to the market; meanwhile,the European Commission is signalling the prospect of an end to dairy quotas by2013.

There have been no specific discussionswith the EU on the Dairy Premium and Additional Payment.

The Dairy Premium and AdditionalPayment formed part of the CAP reform package agreed by the EU Agriculture Councilin July 2003. The method of calculation was set out in Council Regulation (EC) 1782/2003adopted in September 2003. In Scotland, both the Dairy Premium and Additional Payment are basedon quota held at the qualifying date of 31 March 2004.

Since the start of the SingleFarm Payment Scheme on 1 January 2005, my department has received 1,687 applications to transferentitlements. This figure represents 1,252 individual businesses transferring entitlementsto 838 individual businesses. The detail of the number and value of entitlementstransferred is outlined in the following table:

Type and Value of Entitlement Transferred	Total	From 15-05-05 to 2-03-2005	From 3-05-05 to 2-03-2007
		Effective for the 2006 Scheme	Effective for the 2007 Scheme
A. Number of Set-Aside Entitlements   a. Value of Set-Aside	2,761.37     £622,891.28	36.05     £8,124.06	2,725.32     £614,767.22
B Number of Standard Entitlements   b Value of Standard	160,834.17     £11,893,631.46	1,375.04     £240,728.324	159,459.13     £11,652,903.16
C Number of Other Entitlements   c. Total Value of Other Entitlements	1.00     £174.05	0     0	1.00     £174.05
D Total Number of All Entitlements Transferred (A+B+C)   d. Total Value of All Entitlements Transferred (a+b+c)	163,596.54         £12,516,696.80	1411.09         £240,728.32	162,185.45         £12,267,844.42

 

In the context of the SingleFarm Payment Scheme, the number of producers transferring entitlements represents8.3% of all producers holding entitlements and 4.1% of producers holding entitlementsacquired at least some of them by transfer. In volume terms, 3.8% of all entitlementshave been traded and in value terms, the trading represents 3.0% of the scheme’sannual expenditure.

Of the total number of businesses(838) acquiring entitlements by transfer, 22 have correspondence addresses outsideScotland and one of these is located outside the United Kingdom. All of these areregistered as Scottish businesses for the purposes of Environment and Rural AffairsDepartment support arrangements and are eligible to trade entitlements within Scotland.

In the last five years the ScottishExecutive has been notified of 12 planning applications because SEPA advised against the granting of planning permissionon grounds of flood risk but the planning authority still wished to grant permission.

	Applications Notified	Returned to PA	Called-In	Approved
2002	2	1	1	1
2003	0	0	0	0
2004	7	6	1	0
2005	2	2	0	0
2006	1	1	0	0

 

Details on the decisions takenby planning authorities where an application is returned to them and on the numberof homes and buildings represented by the notified applications is not held centrally.

We are unable formally to submit the Scotland RuralDevelopment Programme (SRDP) until there is agreement over the EuropeanCommissions proposed regulation on voluntary modulation. I am unable to saywhen this will be.

Drafts of the SRDP have been shared with the Commission forinformal comment. Sharing drafts with the Commission at this stage is intendedto allow the programme document to be finalised as much as possible in advanceof the voluntary modulation regulation being adopted.

Recent research on the profileof Scottish Parliament visitors indicates that over 70% live in Scotland.The distribution of Scotland based visitors is concentrated in the central belt. Researchindicates that most people will usually travel only up to two hours for a dayout.

The tables below shows thegeographical spread of schools visiting the Parliament and schools receivingthe outreach education programme, MSPs in Schools, in the current 2006-07academic year. A community outreach programme has operated during session 2 foradult groups living in areas more remote from the Parliament.

	MSPs in Schools
Highland and Islands	25%
Mid Scotland and Fife	19%
Lothian	16%
Central Scotland	11%
West of Scotland	9%
North East Scotland	8%
South of Scotland	7%
Glasgow	5%

 

	Inward visits programme
Lothian	21%
Mid Scotland and Fife	17%
West of Scotland	17%
Central Scotland	13%
Glasgow	11%
North East Scotland	9%
South of Scotland	9%
Highland and Islands	3%

 

Whilst information on theimpact of financial and transport barriers has not been gathered across allvisitors to date, education staff have surveyed local authority schooltransport organisers to establish what improvements could be made by the Parliament to support educational visits from more remote areas.

Location is not the onlyfactor that should be taken into account in targeting education and outreachservices, including encouraging visits to the Parliament. Many of our mostdisengaged sections of the population are to be found in areas of deprivation,including areas of the central belt. The issue of monitoring the parliament’svisitor demographic and consideration of specific targeting will be consideredas part of the implementation of the recent review of visitors’ services. Inaddition a review of the education and outreach service is also underway. Itwill consider the issue of targeting schools geographically and on other basesand is due to report in April 2007. Members have recently been invited to givetheir views on the education and outreach services to help inform the finalrecommendations.

The Scottish Executive will markInternational Workers’ Memorial Day by continuing our work with the Health and SafetyExecutive (HSE), trade unions, responsible employers and with all those committedto ending the kind of tragedies that will be commemorated on that day. It is importantthat, as well as highlighting the issue of health and safety in the workplace onthis specific date each year, we ensure that the positive messages on health andsafety percolate into business and Government decisions and results in genuine improvementsin the workplace. We know that we have to engage both employers and their workers.In this respect, The Partnership on Health and Safety in Scotland (PHASS) was establishedin 2005 by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC), supported by UK and Scottishministers, with the aim of implementing the HSC’s strategy for workplace healthand safety to 2010 and beyond, in Scotland. It brings together representatives fromthe Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), Confederation of British Industry, Scotland(CBI), Federation of Small Business (FSB), local authorities, the Scottish Centrefor Healthy Working Lives, POOSH Scotland (professional organisations in occupationalsafety and health), HSC, HSE and the Scottish Executive. PHASS aims to target actionby co-ordinating effort by devolved and reserved government and to promote the benefitsto people, businesses, and Scotland’s economy, of working in a safe and healthy environment.