Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive has discussions with the UK Government on a wide range of issues, including policy development regarding broadband services.

The Scottish Executive has no functions in relation to telecommunications regulation, which remains reserved to the UK Government.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:No estimates for 2002-03 have yet been set.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:(a) £7.2 million(b) £6.8 million(c) The cost of catering services for the current year 2001-02 is not yet available.

The department is actively pursuing the Scottish Health at Work initiative; is working with its trade unions and the Scottish Executive to develop a stress management policy, and will be commissioning tailored training courses in stress prevention and management for its staff.

The total publication costs of the Scotland's Economic Future leaflet were approximately £8,960. The launch took place at "Our Enterprise Strategy" conference held on 12 February, to review progress one year on after the publication of SSS: A strategy for the Enterprise networks. The event was co hosted by the Executive and the Enterprise networks and conference costs were met jointly by the Scottish Executive, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise.

Research was commissioned by the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD) to quantify the effect of green cover strategies for non-rotational set-aside on losses of nitrogen and phosphorus to watercourses. The research was completed by the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) in March 1998. Results from this study show that when set-aside land is sown with a dense green cover with a high content of ryegrass, it has the potential of minimising nitrate leaching to watercourses. If a cover crop is not established on the set-aside land and there is subsequent late ploughing, this results in a high loss of nitrate from agricultural land to water courses.The benefits of set-aside in minimising nitrate losses were also confirmed by earlier work commissioned from the SAC by the department (in 1993) which measured and modelled the nitrogen cycle in soils under various agricultural systems including set-aside over three to four years.The research and its conclusions have been taken into account by SAC in preparation of the draft Regulatory Impact Assessment commissioned by SEERAD for the proposed nitrate vulnerable zone action programmes.

No specific information has been gathered by the department on this matter. General advice on the exchange of water between groundwaters and watercourses has been obtained by the department from the British Geological Survey as part of its report Groundwater nitrate vulnerable zones for Scotland (Bib. number 18567). Groundwater is, of course, recharged with water from the soil and watercourses. In Scotland, however, rainfall is generally high and therefore main, trunk sections of rivers tend not to lose water to aquifers, but rather gain in volume through groundwater discharges along their length. The rate of this "baseflow" movement varies with a number of factors, including permeability of the aquifer. During periods of flood, river water can recharge river gravels, but only as temporary storage and within months the water generally returns to the river.

The information requested is given in the following table:

	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
Scotland	Nitrogen overall application rate (kg/ha)
All Tillage	128	140	122	134	131	126	135
All Grass	111	114	100	124	119	117	110
All Crops and Grass	118	124	108	128	124	121	118
North East (Aberdeenshire & Moray)	Nitrogen overall application rate (kg/ha)
All Tillage	132	122	112	61	104	107	128
All Grass	117	127	131	75	97	123	118
All Crops and Grass	123	125	121	67	100	114	123

Source: British Survey of Fertiliser PracticeAnnual changes in relative cropping areas, as well as any change in fertiliser practice for individual crops, may affect nutrient application rates when aggregated across the main crop groupings such as all tillage, all grass and crops and grass.Unusual seasonal weather can also influence fertiliser usage in some years.The unusually low overall nitrogen application rates for north east Scotland in 1997 is explained by the fact that there were very few fields sampled in that area that year (only 141 fields compared with 550 fields in the 2000 sample). Moreover, the fields that were sampled in the north east in 1997 predominantly grew spring barley and root crops for stockfeed, where nitrogen application rates are typically low. The 2000 sample on the other hand included fields growing winter wheat, winter barley and winter oilseed rape, where application rates are very much higher. The small number of fields surveyed and the small number of types of crop represented in 1997 means that the estimates for the north east for the overall "all grass" and "all tillage" nitrogen application rates are not very robust and will have associated large standard errors.

To date the department has received 12 responses from individuals and organisations in the north-east of Scotland to the consultation document Protection of Scotland's Water Environment (Bib. number 18665) released on 14 January. There have been a further two requests for more information and 89 requests for the CD-ROM action programme guidance. I personally have received 4 pieces of correspondence about the proposals for new nitrate vulnerable zones in the north-east. The consultation period ends on 15 April.