- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 21 July 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to make commencement orders in respect of the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 and which sections will come into force first.
Answer
As I made clear during parliamentary consideration of the act, commencement of this important legislation will not be unnecessarily delayed. My intention is that the act should be commenced later this year. It is likely that the provisions in part 3 of the act (Protection of Wildlife) will be the first to come into force.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 1 July 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that, in expanding the field sports sector of tourism, biodiversity and other land use interests are protected.
Answer
Scotland’s unrivalled natural beauty is one of the major assets that attracts visitors to choose Scotland as a holiday destination. The protection of these assets is therefore an essential element in our tourism strategy, and in the development of the tourism products that we offer our visitors.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 1 July 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it anticipates any problems arising from the operation of the TETRA police telecommunication system.
Answer
The operation and maintenance of the Airwave network is a matter for the service provider O2. Scottish police forces and the Scottish Executive have been working closely with O2 with the aim of achieving a smooth migration from existing systems to Airwave.
In planning for the introduction of Airwave, Scottish forces have benefited from sharing information with those forces in England and Wales already using the service. This information has been used at both national and local levels to assist forces in preparing for Airwave.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 1 July 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how the environmental impact of multiple proposed windfarm developments in a given area should be assessed.
Answer
Advice on how cumulative impacts should be assessed is given in Planning Advice Note 45: Renewable Energy Technologies.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 17 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Community Renewables Initiative will have adequate resources for funding renewable energy installation in new schools.
Answer
The Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative supports a range ofapplicants, including schools, hospitals, community centres and local housinginitiatives. Applications are dealt with on a first-come, first-served basis. Extensive efforts are being made to promote the scheme to local authority clients, we are considering the options for extension of the scheme beyond 2005 as part of the current spending review.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 25 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the farm scale evaluation gives a true indication of any environmental harm caused by Chardon LL mai'e, in light of the conclusions of the recent report of the Westminster Environmental Audit Committee GM Food - Evaluating the field scale trials.
Answer
The Scottish Executive, the Science Review, and the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment(ACRE) are all satisfied that the methods used in the farm scale trials forboth design and analysis were valid and robust. They are the most extensive andthorough evaluations of their kind in the world, and gave a clear picture of the changes in biodiversity caused by different herbicide regimes used on geneticallymodified (GM) and conventional crops, including maize.
ACRE recommended that studies were initiated to considerthe validity of the results in light of the phasing out of Atrazine. Furtheranalysis of the farm scale evaluation (FSE) data has been published in the peerreviewed scientific journal Nature. This work concludes that the banning of Atrazine is unlikely to undermine theconclusions of the FSEs.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 24 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any human feeding studies using GM foods have been carried out and, if so, what the results were.
Answer
I am advised by the FoodStandards Agency that all GM foods aresubject to a rigorous safety assessment before they can be marketed anywhere inthe EU. The safety of all novel foods, including GM foods, is assessed on anEU-wide basis using internationally agreed procedures that are recognised byregulatory authorities world-wide. No human feeding studies have been carriedout under these procedures.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any areas of active raised bog or degraded raised bog capable of regeneration proposed for Special Area for Conservation protection within the Dumfries and Galloway bioclimatic 'one.
Answer
There are three designatedraised bog candidate Special Areas of Conservation in Dumfries and Galloway (atCarsegowan Moss, Raeburn Flow and Solway Mosses North) with all three supportingboth active bog and degraded bog still capable of natural regeneration.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what studies on hori'ontal gene flow from GM crops have been carried out and what the results of any such studies were.
Answer
The review of GM scienceexamined the issue of horizontal gene flow and concluded that it is veryinfrequent and could happen whether the plant was transgenic, conventional ororganic. However, the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environmentconsiders the potential consequences of horizontal gene flow, as part of theircase-by-case assessment. This approach is endorsed by the Science Review Panel.
The Executive, together withthe other UK Administrations, acknowledges that further research would bebeneficial to improve knowledge and understanding of soil ecosystems.
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the release of Chardon LL mai'e is still legal under EU directive 2001/18/EC, given that its transgenic insert changed from the structure reported in the company's original dossier.
Answer
The Advisory Committee onReleases to the Environment (ACRE) has recently considered two reports whichclaimed that independent analysis had identified discrepancies in the molecularcharacterisation of approved GM products.
ACRE consider that the additional information was due torecent improvements in the methods for the analysis of transformation events anddid not give rise to an additional risk. However, ACRE haverequested further information to allow them to complete their own analysis and,if necessary, will review relevant risk assessments in light of this information.
ACRE are satisfied that the original consent remainslegal since there is no evidence that the GM insert in Chardon LL maize haschanged.
