- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 29 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to bring forward the commencement order in respect of the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 in order to ensure that home owners do not continue to face demands from feudal superiors for payments for waiver of title conditions and whether it will canvass MSPs in order to establish how widespread this practice continues to be.
Answer
We will bring forward the commencement order in due course. The Property Law Reform programme is a package and we will assess the appropriate date for commencement when the next Bill in the package - the Title Conditions Bill - has been enacted. We expect to consult on a draft Title Conditions Bill in the spring. Meantime, we have no plans to conduct a survey of MSPs, but would of course be happy to receive any information from them.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 12 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what assistance is currently provided to farmers and crofters on lower incomes and in particular to those whose net income is below that of a full-time worker in receipt of an income based on the minimum wage.
Answer
There are a wide range of agricultural support measures available to farmers and crofters regardless of income levels. In addition the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board sets a minimum hourly rate of pay for agricultural workers. The rate for an adult worker is currently 18% above the national minimum wage.Farmers and crofters on low incomes are entitled to the normal social security assistance. Social Security is reserved to the UK Parliament.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 12 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government to secure additional agrimonetary compensation and, if so, what amount it will seek to secure.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the United Kingdom Government on a wide range of issues including agrimoney compensation. The Scottish Executive cannot decide unilaterally to pay compensation since agrimoney payments must be made on a UK-wide basis. That is why the subject was discussed along with other issues when I met with the other Agricultural Ministers on Monday 22 January.The United Kingdom Government has until the end of April 2001 to apply to the EU Commission for such aid. Since the precise amounts of agrimoney compensation available to the UK has yet to be determined by the EU Commission, it is rather pre-mature to discuss how much agrimoney compensation, if any, we will apply for. We will consider the matter in more detail once we have a clearer picture of precisely how much money is at stake.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is planning or considering any legislation designed to promote salmon, other than the Salmon Conservation (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
The Executive has no such plans at present.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has investigated the level of by-catch in the industrial and pelagic fisheries and, if so, what conclusions have been reached.
Answer
Industrial fisheries are conducted predominantly by Denmark and Norway and are not routinely monitored by scientists from the Scottish Executive. Both Denmark and Norway provide the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) with estimates of bycatch from their industrial fleets. The following table shows estimated catches in tonnes for the principal species for the period 1995-99 reported by ICES. With the exception of herring, most of the species are caught in fisheries for Norway pout and the so-called "mixed" industrial fishery. In the case of herring, most of the catch is taken in the fishery for sprat.
Bycatch of the principal fish species taken as bycatch in small meshed fisheries conducted by Denmark and Norway in the North Sea.
| 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
| Cod | 366 | 1688 | 1,281 | 532 |
| Haddock | 5,000 | 7000 | 5,000 | 4,000 |
| Whiting | 5,000 | 6000 | 3,000 | 5,000 |
| Saithe | 0 | 3000 | 3,000 | 3,000 |
| Dab | 1,065 | 2662 | 6,620 | 4,317 |
| Mackerel | 2,019 | 3153 | 1,934 | 2,728 |
| Horse mackerel | 2,369 | 3332 | 2,576 | 5,116 |
| Herring | 39,000 | 15000 | 16,000 | 23,000 |
The main pelagic fisheries are for herring, mackerel and horse mackerel. The bycatch of non-target species in these fisheries is very low and is not routinely monitored.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made representations to Her Majesty's Government regarding the banning of drift netting off the North East coast of England, as opposed to reducing it by the means of the issue of fewer licences.
Answer
The Executive has long recognised the impact of the North East Drift Net Fishery on salmon returning to Scottish rivers. We have in the past expressed concerns to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food about this fishery and, therefore, welcome their recent announcement about plans to accelerate its phase out.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether a co-ordinator should be appointed to ensure effective co-ordination of local and national salmon monitoring and research programmes and, if so, when such a co-ordinator will be appointed.
Answer
The Executive has no plans to make such an appointment. The Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory and Scottish Fisheries Co-ordination Centre already fulfil this role through their work with district salmon fishery boards and fishery trusts.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will introduce a decommissioning scheme for Scottish registered fishing boats and, if so, when and with what budget.
Answer
I have agreed to have discussions soon with industry representatives on a range of topical issues, which will include decommissioning.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is considering any further measures, other than those contained in the Salmon Conservation (Scotland) Bill, in relation to the conservation of salmon; if so, what measures are being considered; what stage such consideration has reached and what measures will be introduced.
Answer
The terms of the Salmon Conservation (Scotland) Bill are deliberately non-prescriptive to allow district salmon fishery boards to apply for a range of conservation measures. The Executive expects individual boards to put together a package of conservation measures which will address the problems in their particular district.In the meantime, the analysis of responses to the consultation exercise on "Protecting and Promoting Scotland's Freshwater Fish and Fisheries" currently in progress, will no doubt raise a number of issues for consideration.
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 25 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether additional measures are required in order to eradicate the feral mink population; if so, in which parts of Scotland and when such steps will be taken.
Answer
Feral mink are widely distributed over most of mainland Scotland and many offshore islands. Their impact on ground-nesting birds is well documented and it is widely believed that mink are also associated with the decline of the water vole.
The Scottish Executive is supporting Scottish Natural Heritage's application for EU LIFE-Nature funding to assist with the first phase of a mink eradication programme for the Western Isles.SNH continues to maintain an overview on the subject of mink predation and control as it relates to the natural heritage. In view of the extensive range which the species now occupies in Britain, total eradication of the species is not possible. Therefore, resources must be carefully targeted at key sites where long-term control is considered to be a practicable option.
