Chamber and committees

Under the existing legislation there is no legal barrier to making LFASS and SFPS (Single Farm Payment Scheme) payments in the same year. However, they each have eligibility criteria that must be met before payments can issue. This is a legal requirement.

There are eight delivery mechanisms within the Scotland Rural Development Programme, five of which are competitive. The competitive elements are:

Rural Priorities

LEADER

Food Processing, Marketing and Cooperation (FPMC)

Skills Development Scheme

Forestry Challenge Funds.

Some of the delivery mechanisms are funded on a national basis, rather than regionally. LEADER is funded by Local Action Group. In these cases information broken down by Area Office is unavailable.

Rural Priorities

Area Office	August 2008 RPAC	October 2008 RPAC	December 2008 RPAC	Total
Argyll	£745,082.25	£1,403,484.04	£3,323,405.20	£5,471,971.49
Ayrshire	£723,109.30	£556,257.21	£1,713,460.45	£2,992,826.96
Borders	£568,041.60	£1,578,882.67	£3,426,346.36	£5,573,270.63
Clyde	£32,500.00	£297,743.04	£974,715.56	£1,304,958.60
Dumfries and Galloway	£472,073.66	£1,549,456.88	£2,012,061.98	£4,033,592.52
Forth	£96,310.35	£838,961.48	£2,584,213.94	£3,519,485.77
Grampian	£1,548,699.47	£10,357,336.57	£6,226,914.43	£18,132,950.47
Highland	£432,863.56	£2,919,013.72	£3,061,732.42	£6,413,609.70
Northern Isles	£234,226.71	£1,130,605.45	£2,290,355.01	£3,655,217.17
Outer Hebrides	£149,556.90	£64,825.30	£92,060.67	£306,442.87
Tayside	£939,282.55	£1,780,253.69	£3,076,108.49	£5,795,644.73
Total	£5,941,746.35	£22,476,820.05	£28,781,374.50	£57,199,970.90

 

LEADER

The information is provided by Local Action Group. These do not necessarily correspond with established area offices. Any more detailed information as to month or project is currently unavailable.

LAG	Award £ Million
	LEADER	Convergence	Total
Aberdeenshire	3.36		3.36
Argyll and Bute	2.8	5.12	7.92
Ayr	3.38		3.38
Cairngorms	1	1.17	2.17
Dumfries and Galloway	2.85		2.85
East Renfrewshire	0.34		0.34
Fife	1.33		1.33
Forth and Lomond	2.77		2.77
Highland	6.76	7.5	14.26
Kelvin Valley	0.56		0.56
Orkney	0.57	1.54	2.11
Outer Hebrides	0.95	1.98	2.93
Moray	1.44	0.4	1.84
Rural Tayside	2		2
Scottish Borders	2.42		2.42
Shetland	0.65	1.49	2.14
South Lanarkshire	1.47		1.47
Tyne- Esk	2.34		2.34
West Lothian	1.05		1.05
	38.03	19.2	57.24

 

FPMC

This scheme is funded nationally. Two rounds have been announced so far, with one pending

Round/Month	Total Amount of Funding Approved (£ Million)
1/ August 2008	6
2/ November 2008	5.7
3/Pending	1.3
Total	13

 

Skills Development

Information is unavailable broken down by area office in the most part as the majority of approvals are national projects. Where projects are clearly defined as covering a particular geographical area, these have been indicated.

Area Covered	Total Grant Amount	Approval Month
National (Community Woodlands)	£50,000	September 2008
Forth Valley (Stirling Ent.)	£18,450	September 2008
Orkney (NFU)	£10,676	November 2008
Grampian, Tayside and Forth Valley (Lantra)	£47,937	December 2008
National (Soil Assoc.)	£151,645	December 2008
Grampian, Tayside and Dumfries (Lantra)	£45,693	December 2008
National (QMS)	£362,480	January 2009
Total	£686,881

 

Challenge Funds

(1) The Forestry Challenge Funds are administered at a national level (i.e. single Scotland wide judging / selection panel)

(2) There has been a single round of application judging/selection on 7 November 2008.

(3) In the following table the value of awards to specific projects is detailed.

Scheme Name	Project Type	Judges Decision	Total FC Contribution
Tayfield WIAT	WIAT	Approved	£23,258.00
Dedridge Burn	WIAT	Conditional	£55,815.00
Uphall Community Woodland	WIAT	Conditional	£66,022.47
Fife Council (active schools)	F4P	Approved	£9,983.67
Breich Valley Wood	WIAT	Approved	£5,500.00
Castlemilk Environmental Trust	Combined	Approved	£41,943.00
GCC - Dawsholm Phase 2	WIAT	Conditional	£121,200.58
GCC - Darnley & Ward 3	WIAT	Conditional	£22,513.55
GCC - Heathcote Avenue	F4P	Approved	£3,700.00
Drumchapel Woodland Group	F4P	Approved	£11,354.77
NLC - greenlink	F4P	Conditional	£59,039.00
Drumplier Avenue	WIAT	Approved	£30,528.00
Cairnhill Wood	WIAT	Approved	£113,170.00
Mid Lothian Council	WIAT	Approved	£1,725.04
Harmony Wood	WIAT	Approved	£17,270.25
Scottish wildlife Trust	WIAT	Approved	£71,333.50
Scottish Borders Forest School	F4P	Approved	£14,880.00
Cluny Hill, Muiry Wood & Sanquhar Woods	Combined	Conditional	£23,822.80
Sanquhar & New Forres Woodlands	Combined	Conditional	£120,405.00
Aberdeen City Council	WIAT	Approved	£14,681.00
Walktown Huntly	F4P	Conditional	£20,000.00
Duneland Ltd	F4P	Approved	£7,500.00
Raasay house Woodlands	F4P	Approved	£3,468.30
FEI Highland	F4P	Approved	£15,125.00
Total			£874,238.93

 

We consider analytical facilities to be an important component in the monitoring of the safety and standards of the public''s food, water and other consumer products. Public analysts are a statutory requirement under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 and adequate provision of these services enables local authorities to protect public health and to carry out their statutory responsibilities across a wide range of activities.

There is also recognition by the European Union of the role of such facilities. As central competent authority for food safety and standards, the Food Standards Agency has a UK-wide responsibility under European legislation (Regulation 882/2004 on Official Food and Feed controls) to ensure that there is adequate laboratory capacity for the testing of food; a sufficient number of suitably qualified and experienced staff; and appropriate facilities and equipment to undertake official controls.

The Scottish Government has had no discussions on this matter with Aberdeen City Council. However, the Food Standards Agency Scotland has been kept informed of proposals relating to the future of Aberdeen City Council''s Public Analyst Laboratory, given the agency''s interest in ensuring the provision of adequate analytical services for food testing across Scotland. The Aberdeen laboratory will be considered in wider discussions on how the agency ensures these services are maintained across Scotland.

The Scottish Government is providing local government in Scotland with record levels of funding. The vast majority of funding, including funding for a public analyst service, is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities including the Scottish Government''s key strategic objectives and manifesto commitments.

The latest settlement gave local authorities 5% additional funding for environmental health.

The Scottish Government has had no discussions with the UK Government or Food Standards Agency on this subject.

However, the Food Standards Agency Scotland has been contributing to on-going discussions with the Association of Public Analysts and other relevant stakeholders on the development of a long term strategy to ensure there is adequate provision of the necessary analytical services for the monitoring of food safety and standards across the UK.

It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to appoint public analysts for the purposes of ensuring food safety, and to take any necessary action in pursuit of that duty.

In addition, as part of the Food Standard Agency Scotland''s overview of local authority food enforcement and their audit of these services, the agency ensure that each local authority has appointed a laboratory that operates, and is assessed and accredited in accordance with, the European standards specified in Regulation (EC) No 882/2004, and which meets the requirements of the Food Safety Act 1990.

The Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) 2007-2013 has eight delivery mechanisms. These are:

Crofting Counties Agricultural Grant Scheme

Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation Grant Scheme

Forestry Commission Challenge Funds

The LEADER initiative

Less Favoured Area Support Scheme

Rural Development Contracts “ Land Manager Options

Rural Development Contracts “ Rural Priorities

Skills Development Scheme.

The only competitive element administered by SGRPID Area Offices is Rural Development Contract “ Rural Priorities (RDC-RP). I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-18805 on 15 January 2009 which details the monthly submission statistics for applications to Rural Priorities and the number of applications received per RPAC region. The written answer also explains the scheme is administered using 11 RPAC regions therefore the statistics available are based on these RPAC regions.

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.

The Statement of Intent is the first of a two stage application process to the Rural Development Contracts - Rural Priorities. The statement of intent allows applicants to register their interest in Rural Priorities and give an outline of their ideas under the scheme. Case officers use the statement of intent to give feedback on the suitability of these ideas based on the regional priorities, and detail any financial constraint or negative impacts evident.

On that basis, the statement of intent is working effectively. The statement of intent allows an applicant, before committing significant expenditure or personal time, to make an informed choice before progressing to the second stage of the application process, full proposal.

The effectiveness of the statement of intent will be one of the areas considered in the upcoming review of the Scottish Rural Development Programme.

Rural Priorities can only be applied for on-line and one of the main advantages of this is that it helps guide people to the information that is relevant to their particular situation, thereby making it more straightforward to complete. The Scottish Government recognise that this may present some difficulties for some applicants, and for this reason is continuing to work actively to provide assistance for potential applicants. A series of workshops and surgeries have been held by SEARS staff and organisations such as NFUS to provide an introduction to Rural Priorities and further workshops may be undertaken if local demand is sufficient.

Further assistance available includes:

Identifying liaison officers in every region to develop local solutions to internet access;

Working with BT to extend broadband coverage across rural Scotland;

Providing IT helpdesk to assist with login problems;

Providing applicants with information about alternative local internet access points;

Providing training material to NFUS for use in one to one surgeries across the country, and

Part-funding for applicants who choose to use agents services.

We take concerns very seriously and these will be taken account in my recently announced review of the Rural Priorities mechanism.