- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 30 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any payments under the current funding round of the Rural Priorities scheme have been delayed and, if so, (a) how many, (b) for what reason, (c) what the total value is of such payments, (d) what action is being taken to allow the payments to be made and (e) when those awaiting payments can expect to receive them.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 30 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any payments under the current funding round of the Rural Development Contracts – Rural Priorities scheme have been delayed and, if so, (a) how many, (b) for what reason, (c) what the total value is of such payments, (d) what action is being taken to allow the payments to be made and (e) when those awaiting payments can expect to receive them.
Answer
(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.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 29 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any payments under the current funding round of the Crofting Counties Agricultural Grant Scheme have been delayed and, if so, (a) how many, (b) for what reason, (c) what the total value is of such payments, (d) what action is being taken to allow the payments to be made and (e) when those awaiting payments can expect to receive them.
Answer
There are no delayed payments under the Crofting Counties Agricultural Grants Scheme.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 29 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any payments under the current funding round of the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme have been delayed and, if so, (a) how many, (b) for what reason, (c) what the total value is of such payments, (d) what action is being taken to allow the payments to be made and (e) when those awaiting payments can expect to receive them.
Answer
There are no delayed payments under the 2009 round of the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme payments.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 29 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any payments under the current funding round of the Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation Grant Scheme have been delayed and, if so, (a) how many, (b) for what reason, (c) what the total value is of such payments, (d) what action is being taken to allow the payments to be made and (e) when those awaiting payments can expect to receive them.
Answer
There have been no delays to payments in the current round of Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation grant applications.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 29 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any payments under the current funding round of the Skills Development Scheme have been delayed and, if so, (a) how many, (b) for what reason, (c) what the total value is of such payments, (d) what action is being taken to allow the payments to be made and (e) when those awaiting payments can expect to receive them.
Answer
No such payments have been delayed.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 24 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any payments under the current funding round of the LEADER initiative have been delayed and, if so, (a) how many, (b) for what reason, (c) what the total value is of such payments, (d) what action is being taken to allow the payments to be made and (e) when those awaiting payments can expect to receive them.
Answer
This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Executive. Payments to beneficiaries under the LEADER programme are made by the lead partners on behalf of the LEADER Local Action Group (LAGs). The procedures and time scales for payment are determined at a local level. The Scottish Executive reimburse LAGs on a quarterly basis and are currently meeting payment targets to LAGs as agreed in the Service Level Agreement.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it expects Scottish farmed (a) salmon, (b) whitefish and (c) shellfish production to increase in each of the next three years and, if so, by what amount and based on what evidence.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not make predictions for production figures for these sectors, however, each of the relevant producer organisations is optimistic about the immediate prospects for growth.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 18 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it expects the amount of (a) pelagic fish, (b) whitefish and (c) shellfish landed by (i) Scottish, (ii) other UK and (iii) other EU vessels to increase in each of the next three years and, if so, by what amount and based on what evidence.
Answer
Limits on the amount of commercial fish stocks landed by European vessels are based on scientific advice on stock condition provided in the preceding year. Stock condition reflects both management actions and natural fluctuations. The quota allocation to UK vessels is determined through the principle of Relative Stability, and the Scottish share is generally based on the Fixed Quota Allocation (FQA) units associated with the licences of vessels as at 1 January of the relevant year.
We have yet to receive the scientific advice for most fish stocks which will provide the basis for limits for 2011. This will be published at the end of June for whitefish and herring and at the beginning of October for other pelagic species. We cannot currently predict what stock conditions, and therefore amounts landed, will be in 2012 and 2013. However, we are now trialling a scheme to reduce discards and increase the amount of cod landed by converting a percentage of discarded fish into quota. If successful, we hope to expand this scheme to other species in the coming years.
Marine Scotland produces a statistical analysis of catches and landings and provides information on landings trends via its website:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/09/11100225/0.
These trends indicate high variability for pelagic landings, a decline in demersal landings and a steady increase in shellfish landings.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 18 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive when it next expects to meet stakeholders to discuss the effectiveness of its Eat More Fish campaign.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-34393 on 18 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.
