Chamber and committees

Existing legislation in Scotland is amongst the toughest in Europe. A person who is caught littering is, if the case goes to court, liable to a fine of up to £2,500. Alternatively, the person may be offered the opportunity to pay a fixed penalty fine, the level of which is £50.

Police officers and designated local authority officers have the power to issue fixed penalty notices to those who litter. However, as independent bodies, whether local authorities empower officials to issue notices and whether police forces exercise their powers, is entirely up to them. They are encouraged to do so by the Scottish Government.

The Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse (COPLAR) provides practical guidance on the use of the litter enforcement powers contained in the act. COPLAR website, operated by the independent environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB), provides guidance on the issuing of fixed penalty fines. The information can be found at http://www.littercode.org/index.asp?pg=41.

Scottish Government provides funding to the independent environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB).

KSB carries out surveys of all award winning beaches each summer for cleanliness in line with the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse (COPLAR).

There are four standards of beach cleanliness. These are: cleanliness grade A (no litter or refuse), cleanliness grade B (predominantly free of litter), cleanliness grade C (consistent distribution of litter and refuse) and cleanliness grade D (heavily littered with significant accumulations). Beaches should achieve at least a grade B at all times. When they drop below this standard they must be returned to at least a grade B within a set timescale. Further information about the cleanliness standards and the timescales is available from the COPLAR website operated by KSB www.littercode.org.

To help tackle the issue the Scottish Government continues to provide funding to the independent environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) who run a number of anti-litter campaigns designed to raise public awareness of the problem. KSB also coordinate a number of other programmes, including the Blue Flag award scheme and the Seaside Award.

In April, KSB once again ran their annual month long National Spring Clean campaign. The 2009 campaign has proven to be a great success, with a record level of almost 58,000 people volunteering to participate in clean-up events across Scotland. Coastal clean-up events proved to be very popular, with 80 such events involving a total of 8,665 volunteers talking place. Overall, enough litter was collected across Scotland to fill almost 29,000 wheelie bins. While many groups already take part in voluntary clean ups organised by KSB during the rest of the year, National Spring Clean provides an opportunity for schools, youth clubs, environmental organisations, voluntary groups, community gatherings and businesses to play an important part in a bigger, coordinated campaign.

KSB, through the two beach award schemes, the Blue Flag and the Seaside Award, also encourages beach managers to provide information about beach litter and its impacts at all award beach information boards to raise public awareness of the problems.

Through the Scottish Bathing Water Litter Grant Scheme we are also tackling the litter problem at bathing waters and their beaches. The grant scheme, administered by KSB on our behalf, aims to encourage communities to carry out clean-ups of beaches close to bathing waters, or to run litter prevention campaigns or support and promote community action with a focus on reducing marine and coastal litter pollution. The 2009-10 grant application deadline is the end of June 2009. Further information is available on the KSB website http://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/.

 

My officials have written to all members of the Less Favoured Area (LFA) stakeholders group inviting them to join a small technical working group to discuss detailed rules for the future of the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS). The following organisations have accepted the invitation: NFU Scotland, Scottish Rural Property Business Association (SRPBA), Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Environmental Link, National Sheep Association (NSA), Scottish Crofting Foundation (SCF), Scottish Beef Cattle Association (SBCA), and National Beef Association (NBA) Scotland.

The first meeting was held on 16 July 2009, and the detailed rules will need to be finalised by the beginning of 2010.

The Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) payments for 2007-09 were calculated on certain frozen LFASS 2006 historic values, including grazing categories. For LFASS 2010, it is the intention to rebase using 2008 data. The precise detail of how this rebasing is to be done has still to be decided and will form part of the discussions within the technical working group.

The future of the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) post-2010 has already been subject to a full public consultation. Following an analysis of the consultation responses, it was the consensus view that LFASS payments must be linked to activity. At the combined CAP/LFASS stakeholder meeting held on 16 June, it was agreed that a small technical working group would be set up. The purpose of this group will be for members to look closely at the more detailed rules of the scheme, including a definition of the active farming requirement.

In principle, the Scottish Government intends that all agricultural activity will be taken into account in the new activity rules. However, the detailed rules have still to be drawn up and this will be one of several issues to be discussed by members of the technical working group.

Many bodies have concerns about the consequences of depletion of our valuable biodiversity and natural resources. There is general agreement that, while significant improvements have been achieved, EU member states will not achieve the ambitious target adopted by the European Union to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010. The Scottish Government is however committed to delivering policies within the context of the National Performance Framework which will lead to continuing improvements in the state of Scotland''s biodiversity; non-governmental organisations and private sector representatives are partners with the public sector in taking forward actions under the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy.

The Scottish Government is also continuing to work with the UK authorities in contributing to international debate on measures to address global biodiversity loss in the lead up to the 2010 Nagoya Conference of Parties on the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee is currently analysing data collected across the UK in the recent reporting round for 2008. This will form the basis for reporting against 2010 targets.

Full information is available at http://www.ukbap-reporting.org.uk/.