Chamber and committees

Monitoring for the presence of Dothistroma needle blight has taken place annually on the national forest estate since 2006. Following completion of the 2012 survey the presence of Dothistroma on pine species has now been confirmed on 12,600 hectares of woodland. By species this amounts to some 8,600 hectares of lodgepole pine, 3,800 hectares of Scots pine and 250 hectares of Corsican pine.

The Social Issues in Public Procurement guidance, October 2007, was followed up in February 2008 by publication of a detailed report and guidance on the use of community benefit clauses in public procurement. These clauses are now being used in a variety of projects across the public sector to deliver wider social benefits including targeted recruitment and training and opportunities for social enterprises and small and medium enterprises. Since initiating work in this area, a commitment to over 3500 targeted recruitment and training opportunities has been achieved in contracts across the wider public sector.

To facilitate contracts with supported businesses, the Scottish Government put in place a Supported Business Framework Agreement in September 2012 that can be used by the Scottish public sector.

By the end of January 2013, 17 public sector organisations had placed 31 contracts under the framework.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the continuous development of more efficient and effective EIA practice in Scotland. Officials across the Scottish Government recently hosted a series of seminars aimed at better understanding the European Commission's detailed proposals for amending this Directive, and the likely impact of those proposals in light of this objective. We are currently analysing the seminar findings and will publish a written summary in due course. We will use the seminar findings to inform our on-going engagement with UK and European partners including engagement with ministers and officials in Ireland, given their role in the Presidency of the European Council of Ministers.

This information can be found on the Scottish Government web-site at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/Licensing/SealLicensing

The figures show that overall 5% fewer seals were shot under licence in 2012 than in 2011.

Information on seal licences issued for 2013 will be published on the web-site in the near future.

Learning for Sustainability further strengthens the place of outdoor learning and sends a clear message about the value and importance of a holistic, whole school approach that encompasses sustainable development, global citizenship and outdoor learning.

All 31 recommendations have been accepted, almost all in full, and the Scottish Government will be working with partners including the Regional Centre for Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development, Education Scotland, the General Teaching Council for Scotland, educators and others to support implementation arrangements.

The Scottish Government’s response to the Learning for Sustainability report was published on 13 March 2013 and is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/Schools/curriculum/ACE

Education Scotland continues to provide strong support for the development of outdoor learning as an approach to learning within Curriculum for Excellence. In addition to guidance and high quality resources, Education Scotland has initiated a coherent and strategic career-long professional learning programme in partnership with local authorities and a wide range of stakeholders. A range of support is also provided on health and wellbeing and outdoor learning and making best use of Scotland’s National Parks.

Education Scotland will continue to promote outdoor learning as a key pedagogical approach in line with the recommendations for the Learning for Sustainability Report.

The Scottish Government is currently reviewing the Scottish Planning Policy. From October to January officials carried out a process of pre-draft engagement, seeking stakeholders’ views on the priorities for change in the policy. These responses are being analysed and taken into account in the preparation of the consultation draft. The draft SPP will be published for consultation in the spring.

Between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012, the Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) discharged 12,106 personal bankruptcy cases. For the same time period, AiB restricted the hours charged for work by trustees in 19 cases. When considering trustee accounts, AiB will disallow hours charged that are not appropriate and reduce the number of hours claimed if they appear excessive.

Section 10 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 places responsibility on the relevant local council to appoint the membership of each local licensing forum. The relevant council must ensure, so far as possible, that the membership of the forum is representative of persons within that local area who have an interest which is relevant to the forum’s general functions. I do not consider it appropriate for Scottish Ministers to intervene in this local matter.

For those cases where the Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) is trustee the remuneration claimed is determined in accordance with the Bankruptcy Fees etc. (Scotland) Regulations 2012.

Where a private trustee is in place, a breakdown of the hours incurred and a summary of the work carried out must be supplied to AiB for determination. This must take the format shown in the Statement of Insolvency Practice (Scotland) 9 which insolvency practitioners are required to comply with. This “time matrix” provides details of the categories of work carried out, the grade of staff that carried out the work and the hourly rate charged.

Whilst AiB has no authority to alter the hourly rate charged, it will carefully examine each entry on the matrix and time sheets to ensure that the work carried out was necessary, the time claimed reasonable and the work was carried out by the appropriate grade of staff. Where fees are in excess of £15,000 over a 12 month period, an examination of their files is also carried out to substantiate the entries on the timesheets. When necessary, AiB will disallow hours that are not appropriate, amend the time matrix to ensure the appropriate hourly rate is claimed, and reduce the number of hours claimed if they appear excessive.

The Scottish Government is committed to the development of a marine litter strategy, which aims to address the levels of marine litter present on our coast.

A very successful stakeholder workshop was held in August 2012 and supporting research was published in September 2012. It was decided thereafter to support the strategy by undertaking a strategic environmental assessment which means that a draft strategy is now being prepared for consultation in the spring.