Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-16917 on 10 September 2013. 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 harbour revision order to authorise the Rosyth International Container Terminal is already before Parliament and an environmental impact assessment has been carried out by the applicant and an appropriate assessment of the landward elements has been carried out by Scottish Ministers. Further assessment of marine elements will be carried out by Marine Scotland when considering an application for a marine licence, without which the project may not proceed.

There are currently no plans to provide Scottish Government funding for such upgrading works. We would take a view on any potential state aid issue on a case by case basis.

There is already a rail line to Port Babcock Rosyth which provides potential for multimodal operations. The future use of this rail line will be a matter for the operator and shippers.

Babcock’s projection of freight through the proposed facility was between 100,000 and 578,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEU) depending on the level of growth between 2015 and 2025. We do not hold comparative figures for other ports.

The harbour revision order currently before Parliament contains a Schedule relating to mitigation measures. The harbour authority must comply with the provisions of that Schedule in taking forward the project.

Information on stillborn births for 2011, broken down by NHS board area is contained in the Scottish Perinatal and Infant Mortality and Morbidity Report, published by NHS Information Services Division (ISD) in March 2013 and available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Maternity-and-Births/Publications/2013-03-26/2013-03-26-SPIMMR2011-report.pdf.

Information on stillborn births during 2011-12, broken down by NHS Board area, is contained in Births in Scottish Hospitals, published by ISD on 27 August 2013 and available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Maternity-and-Births/.

Information on stillborn births during 2012, broken down by NHS board area, is contained in 2012 Births, Deaths and Other Vital Events - Preliminary Annual Figures, published by the National Records of Scotland on 14 March 2013 and available at:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/vital-events/general/bmd-preliminary/2012.html.

Information on stillborn births during 2012-13, broken down by NHS Board area, is not yet available.

Health and safety regulation is a matter reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government believes that while regulation of health and safety should not present an unnecessary burden on Scottish business, protecting the health and safety of workers should remain paramount.

We are considering the issues raised by Petition 1469, which is currently before the Public Petitions Committee and relates to concerns about neighbour notification of applications for wind turbines. However, we have no plans at present to amend the neighbour notification requirements.

The Scottish Government, in partnership with Scottish Natural Heritage and the deer management round table recently published a leaflet “Chronic Wasting Disease – Protecting Scotland’s Deer”. This leaflet is aimed at raising awareness of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) among key target groups, including hunters from the UK who visit North America, hosts and sporting agents, visitors from North America and border control staff. The leaflet can be found at the following link on the Scottish Government website:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/farmingrural/Agriculture/animal-welfare/Diseases/disease/wasting/CWDleaflet.

CWD has not been witnessed in Scotland. However, through the work of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) roadmap, a survey was launched in order to detect the possible presence of TSEs in wild and farmed deer in the EU. Over 13,000 tests were carried out and there is no evidence to suggest that CWD has occurred in the EU.