Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-32887 on 28 April 2010 which set out the total amount of woodland felling in each of the past five years. A breakdown of these figures into the various categories now requested is not readily available at present. Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) records show that the total amount of private sector woodland approved for felling over the past five years without a replanting condition was 678 hectares. However, certain categories of felling (including felling associated with planning permission) are exempt from felling licence requirements, and no central records are held on exempt felling.

Current work on improving the National Forest Inventory and implementing the policy on the Control of Woodland Removal will provide additional information on woodland loss. In addition, the Native Woodland Survey being carried out by FCS will provide maps and estimates of recent losses of native and ancient woodland related to development and other causes.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

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

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-32887 on 28 April 2010 which set out the total amount of woodland felling in each of the past five years. A breakdown of these figures into the various categories now requested is not readily available at present. Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) records show that the total amount of private sector woodland approved for felling over the past five years without a replanting condition was 678 hectares. However, certain categories of felling (including felling associated with planning permission) are exempt from felling licence requirements, and no central records are held on exempt felling.

Current work on improving the National Forest Inventory and implementing the policy on the Control of Woodland Removal will provide additional information on woodland loss. In addition, the Native Woodland Survey being carried out by FCS will provide maps and estimates of recent losses of native and ancient woodland related to development and other causes.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The areas of new native woodland planted on private land over the last five years, broken down by Forestry Commission Scotland Conservancy, are shown below. Details of new planting on the national forest estate are not kept by conservancy, but the total amount of new native woodland planted over the same five year period is around 230 hectares.

Areas in Hectares (ha) of New Native Woodlands

Conservancy	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	Total
Central	100	208	583	24	85	1,000
Grampian	217	614	251	78	57	1,217
Highland and Islands	1,886	957	857	337	775	4,812
Perth and Argyll	342	791	412	256	137	1,938
South Scotland	184	689	312	243	210	1,638
Total Scotland	2,729	3,259	2,415	938	1,264	10,605

 

There are 4,430 hectares of native woodland approved for new planting in the next planting season through the Scotland Rural Development Programme.

(a) There are delays in processing 613 annual recurrent claims, and 209 capital claims under Rural Priorities.

(b) On the annual recurrent side, the delay is due to officials continuing to clear computer generated errors, which emerged during the processing of these claims. These include cases where claimants have changed their approved schedule of work, or have amended their original contract, and/or have differences between the areas claimed and those found at inspection. On the capital side, the main reason for the delay is that a number of claims lack all of the required supporting documentation. Such claims are not valid to be paid and officials have to contact claimants to obtain the missing data. This can cause delays if claimants do not respond quickly, or do not have the required information to hand.

(c) There is some £4.6 million of outstanding annual recurrent claims, and some
£4.5 million of capital claims.

(d) New systems are being introduced to speed up the processing of annual recurrent payments. There are no current delays with processing valid 2010 RP capital claims.

(e) We aim to pay all annual recurrent claims by 31 August 2010 and earlier where possible, within the strict confines of EU legislation. Payment of the outstanding capital claims is entirely dependent upon receipt of the required information.

The current position on Rural Priorities payments is set out in the following table.

Rural Priorities (RP) Payments	No. of Claims Received	No. Paid	Value of Claims Paid £m	No. of claims Received but Not Paid	Estimated Value of Unpaid Claims £m
RP Annual Recurrent 2009	1,150	537	£3.70	613	£4.61
RP Capital (to date)	2,452	1,991	£35.30	*209 (2009 claims)	£4.50 (2009 claims)

Note: *There is a published target to pay capital claims within three months of receiving a valid claim. The remaining unpaid capital claims are still within that deadline.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-34671 on 30 June 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.

No such payments have been delayed.

There have been no delays to payments in the current round of Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation grant applications.

There are no delayed payments under the Crofting Counties Agricultural Grants Scheme.

There are no delayed payments under the 2009 round of the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme payments.