Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government, which does not monitor the performance of individual wind turbines. Energy statistics for the United Kingdom are collated and published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Research into wind energy in cold climates has been carried out by the International Energy Agency and suggests that severe wintry weather has only a minimal impact on the performance of appropriately designed turbines.

Turbine selection is a matter for developers and technical information on the parameters within which specific models are designed to operate is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. This may vary from model to model. Turbine manufacturers can generally supply this information on request. It should be noted that large wind turbines have been deployed successfully in cold climates including Alaska.

VisitScotland is committed to driving tourism growth in Perthshire and will continue to do so in 2011 by promoting Perthshire in key national and local marketing campaigns and communications with consumers at home and abroad.

VisitScotland will do this by working in partnership with individual businesses, public agencies, and local authorities to target consumers though marketing, information and inspiration, and quality to maximise the economic benefits of tourism to the area.

Marketing activity includes publications such as the Perthshire, Angus and Dundee Where to Stay and What to See and Do guides; VisitScotland.com and Perthshire.co.uk websites; marketing activities on seasonal campaigns such as Perfect Day, My Scotland and Winter White; consumer e-zines and e-newsletters and of course providing additional information and inspiration through the
six VisitScotland Information Centres (VIC) based in Perthshire.

VisitScotland and Scottish Enterprise work closely with various key stakeholders in Perthshire including Highland Perthshire Destination Management Organisation, Atholl Estates, Gleneagles Hotel, Horsecross Arts Ltd, Nae Limits, Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Scone Estates. These key tourism organisations have received advice and support on strategy development, business planning, training and product development, marketing and promotion and are key partners in helping Scotland and Perthshire increase it''s the visitor offering on the global tourism market.

In order to increase partnership working and further improve the promotion of Perthshire as a tourism destination I facilitated three stakeholder sessions (in Birnam on 15 July 2010, Crieff on 23 November 2010 and Pitlochry on 20 December 2010) with tourism businesses and organisations in the area that are keen to develop and improve their product.

VisitScotland, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise work extensively with whisky attractions and retailers to help promote whisky tourism in Perthshire and across Scotland.

Whisky features across a great range of VisitScotland''s promotion of Scotland, including Perthshire, in their marketing campaigns both domestically and abroad, across brochures, websites, PR activity and a variety of other communications to consumers. This is particularly so during our yearlong focus on Scotland''s Food and Drink in the lead up to the second Year of Homecoming in 2014.

VisitScotland and the enterprise agencies in partnership with The Scotch Whisky Association and The Scotch Whisky Experience supported the establishment of Scotlandwhisky.com, a dedicated site exploring where tourism and whisky can work together. It allows visitors and potential visitors to search for local distilleries, whisky tours, and promotes local whisky festivals and events across Scotland including Perthshire.

VisitScotland works with several Perthshire based distilleries to provide visitors with special promotions some of which also link to other tourism businesses and activities. These offers are promoted through VisitScotland Information Centre''s, websites and other dedicated marketing activities.

Whisky attractions such as Dewar''s world of whisky in Aberfeldy and Edradour in Pitlochry feature in VisitScotland guides and brochures, marketing campaigns such as Winter White. Several whisky and local distilleries also feature in VisitScotland''s What To See And Do guide for the area.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the growth of farmers markets in Scotland. We have funded the Scottish Farmers Market Partnership with around £200,000 over three years to help them support farmers markets throughout Scotland. Since the project began in January 2010, the partnership has provided advice and support to over 100 individuals and around 50 farmers markets. The partnership has also dealt with over 1,500 enquiries from consumers and prospective farmers'' market stall holders at information stands organised at the Royal Highland Show and the BBC Good Food Show Scotland. 

At 30 September 2010, 79.8% of children and 66.6% of adults living in Tayside were registered with an NHS dentist.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3O-11876 on 11 November 2010. All answers to oral/written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Most of the regulation impacting on Scotland''s farmers and land managers comes from Europe and to ensure they fully meet its obligations under the terms of the Scotland Act, Scottish ministers must implement relevant EU rules. Since 2007, a total of 105 SSI''s have been made in the broad area of agriculture replacing or revoking 63 previous SSI''s.

Since launching in June 2008, Scotland''s Environmental and Rural Services (SEARS) - a partnership of eight delivery-focused bodies within the Environment and Rural Affairs portfolio - has looked for opportunities to combine inspections where appropriate.

By end March 2010, SEARS reduced the number of service-generated, separate inspections and visits to rural land managers by 4,996. SEARS is on target to deliver a further reduction of around 3,000 by end March 2011.

Details of the schemes involved are described in the SEARS Annual Reviews 2008-09 and 2009-10.

http://www.sears.scotland.gov.uk/pdf/SEARS_Annual_Review_2008-09.pdf.

http://www.sears.scotland.gov.uk/Default.aspx.

The Scottish Government remains committed to the phased dualling of the route from Perth to Inverness to further improve safety and reduce journey times on this key transport corridor. This ongoing commitment is reflected in the recent commencement of a £10.4 million scheme at Crubenmore which will see the construction of a 3.2 km extension to the existing dual carriageway.