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: S3W-30192

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on services provided by Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture in relation to varroa mites.

Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) provides a free diagnostic service to beekeepers to identify and confirm the presence of Varroa and notifiable bee pests and diseases as well as technical advice. The available figures cover the totals for SASA''s work in support of Bee Health:

2006	£12,183.00
2007	£8,659.34
2008	£4,459.00
2009 (up to end September 2009)	£19,481.65

Question reference: S3W-30185

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how often it has met representatives of the Bee Farmers’ Association since May 2007.

Scottish Government officials have met directly with representatives from the Bee Farmers'' Association formally on several occasions in relation to the Bee Health Strategy for Scotland and the EFB/AFB Disease outbreak. Contact and the sharing of information has also been kept up by correspondence. Officials have also attended meetings arranged by Defra to which representatives from the BFA have also been present.

General Stakeholder Meeting	5 March 2008
Bee Health Strategy Meetings	17 July 2008 2 April 2009
Disease Stakeholder Meetings	20 July 2009 5 August 2009 19 August 2009 11 September 2009 17 November 2009
Defra	26 November 2007

Scottish Government officials have also met BFA representatives through field visits, attending conferences and training events.

Question reference: S3W-30188

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding it will provide to the bee industry following the announcement by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 21 January 2009 that an additional £2.3 million would be allocated to the National Bee Unit.

The Scottish Government have, in 2009:

contributed £500,000 to a five-year insect pollinator research initiative

confirmed our commitment to the funding of four full-time equivalent Bee Inspectors who will be in post until spring 2011 (when the position will be reviewed)

continued our support of an apiculture specialist at SAC and the provision of a free diagnostic service to beekeepers to identify and confirm the presence of varroa and notifiable bee pests and diseases at SASA

funded, provided and distributed the antibiotic Oxytetracycline (OTC) to beefarmers affectect by the EFB outbreak and provided the training for them to ensure the safe use and administration of the OTC

are currently considering investing in the National Bee Unit''s electronic database (Beebase), which is able to provide services and information to both beekeepers and bee inspectors.

Question reference: S3W-30190

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, given that the bee strategy in England and Wales was launched in March 2009, for what reason its equivalent strategy has been delayed.

The publication of the strategy has been delayed due to the unprecedented events of two notifiable bee diseases being confirmed during the summer and autumn of 2009.

Scottish Government officials considered it prudent to take time to consider the valuable lessons that could be learned from this experience and incorporate them into the strategy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30189 on 25 January 2010. All answers to 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.

Question reference: S3W-30187

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-28868 by Richard Lochhead on 26 November 2009, for what reason inspections are completed only when a beekeeper has contacted the relevant authority as a result of a suspected notifiable disease.

Question reference: S3W-30186

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-28868 by Richard Lochhead on 26 November 2009, what its position is regarding the sufficiency of the number of inspections of beehives in 2007 and 2008.

The Scottish Government is content with the sufficiency of the number of inspections of beehives in 2007 and 2008.

Scottish Government Bee Inspectors are obliged to carry out inspections only when they are informed of the presence or suspected presence of a notifiable disease or pest. Therefore, the number of completed inspections are in direct proportion to the number of notifications that have been received.

Question reference: S3W-30193

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to support beekeeping and improve the environment for bees, such as planting bee friendly plants.

In relation to supporting beekeeping, the Scottish Government:

Provides a full time apiculture specialist at SAC (who provides comprehensive advisory, training and education programmes for beekeepers throughout Scotland.

Provides a free diagnostic service to beekeepers to identify and confirm the presence of varroa and notifiable bee pests and diseases through SASA.

Are finalising their Bee Health Strategy which will help to achieve a sustainable and healthy population of honey bees for pollination and honey production in Scotland via strengthened partnership working between the Scottish Government and stakeholders.

Are drawing together a control strategy for 2010 which will ensure bee farmers can continue to operate, whilst minimising the risk of further spread of the disease to other beekeepers.

Have confirmed that four full-time equivalent Bee Inspectors will be in post until spring 2011, when the position will be reviewed.

Have contributed £500,000 to a five year insect pollinator research initiative.

In relation to improving the environment for bees, such as planting bee friendly plants, bees will benefit from a wide range of habitat improvements, including measures supported under the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) for the creation and management of species rich grassland.

Also, the Great Yellow Bumblebee has been identified in SNH''s Species Action Framework as a species for conservation action.

Question reference: S3W-30189

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 25 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-28869 by Richard Lochhead on 26 November 2009, what progress it is making in finalising its bee strategy.

Scottish Government officials are currently evaluating the lessons learned during the notifiable disease outbreaks experienced in 2009 and, as detailed in the answer to question S3W-28869, will publish the strategy when this process is completed.

All answers to 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.

Question reference: S3W-30521

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many tonnes of salt and grit it has in reserve to deal with the extreme weather conditions.

Responsibility for maintaining Scotland''s public roads and footpaths, including the purchase and use of road salt, sits with local authorities and trunk road operators. The Scottish Government does not therefore hold significant reserves of salt or grit for allocation to councils and operators.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30519 on 18 January 2010 which is 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.

Question reference: S3W-30566

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 08 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 19 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will release all advice that it took on alternatives to the Beauly to Denny power line upgrade application, such as subsea cables, undergrounding and upgrading the east coast pylon route.