- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many frontline police officers there are in each force and how many there have been in each of the last five years, expressed also on a per capita basis.
Answer
Over the past five years thenumber of police officers in Scotland has risen by 1,235 to 16,230 with supportstaff rising by 1,910 to 7,392.
Information on thedeployment of officers to particular duties is not held centrally and is anoperational matter for individual chief constables.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 22 March 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-28485 by Peter Peacock on 4 October 2006, whether any further awards have been made towards renewable energy installation projects for schools, showing also the amount awarded to each local authority.
Answer
This information requested isset out in the following table;
| Local Authority | Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative (SCHRI) Grant (subsequent to information provided in S2W-28485) |
| Aberdeen City | £23,701 |
| Fife | £2,641.55 |
| Highland | £70,546 |
| North Lanarkshire | £109,576 |
| Stirling | £15,000 |
In addition, since the questionin October, we have offered grant funding of £400,000 to support the installationof biomass heating in the Perth and Kinross PPP Schools Project.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 22 March 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide an update on progress on the construction of the Fochabers to Mosstodloch bypass, giving details of the scheduled date for the Court of Session hearing and the latest estimated cost and earliest start date in the event that the appeal is not upheld.
Answer
The appeal is scheduled to beginon 8 May 2007 and run for three days. A decision will then be issuedby the court. As the timescale for this is outwith the control of Scottishministers it is not possible to estimate at this stage when construction of thescheme will start.
Thelatest estimated cost is £18 million to £21 million exclusive of value added tax.
Transport Scotland hasthe operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more informationif required.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 March 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to introduce voluntary modulation of single farm payments and, if so, at what level if voluntary modulation is adopted by the Agriculture/Fisheries Council on 19 March 2007 and includes the adoption of the Article 3 proposal for a council regulation laying down rules for voluntary modulation of direct payments which allow member states to apply differentiated rates of modulation, so long as they are already using existing voluntary modulation and are applying single farm payments at a regional level.
Answer
Voluntary modulation will be used in Scotland in order to delivera credible Scotland Rural Development Programme that supports our priority outcomesfor rural Scotland. I cannot confirm the rate until the European voluntary modulationregulation has been finalised. If the final version of the regulation permits, Iconfirm that Scotland will set its own rate of voluntary modulation.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 March 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it has given to the impact of the developing market in Single Farm Payment entitlements on the ability of new entrants to farming to access such entitlements.
Answer
Entitlement trading is required by EC regulations; it facilitatesthe development of farm businesses, for example, following mergers, splits or inheritanceof farms. The Executive recognises that access to entitlements would help new entrantsby providing a stream of income through Single Farm Payments. There are, however,other significant barriers to entry, including the price and availability of land,and access to working capital. New entrants who entered farming immediately afterthe reference period (2000-02) were eligible to apply to the National Reserve forentitlements. When it is approved, the Scottish Rural Development Plan will containa series of measures that will be attractive to new entrants.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Des McNulty on 16 March 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many planning applications proposing development on flood plains have been approved contrary to advice from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the terms of Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) 7 in each of the last five years; how many homes and buildings this represents, and whether it will give details of each such application.
Answer
In the last five years the ScottishExecutive has been notified of 12 planning applications because SEPA advised against the granting of planning permissionon grounds of flood risk but the planning authority still wished to grant permission.
| | Applications Notified | Returned to PA | Called-In | Approved |
| 2002 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2003 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2004 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
| 2005 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2006 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Details on the decisions takenby planning authorities where an application is returned to them and on the numberof homes and buildings represented by the notified applications is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 March 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 16 March 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive to what extent support payments for dairy production are linked to current production levels and whether it considers that the current arrangements are in the long-term interests of the sector.
Answer
Support payments to the dairysector are incorporated into the decoupled Single Farm Payment (SFP) agreed as partof the 2003 CAP reforms. Decoupling subsidies for production was a requirement ofWorld Trade Organization agreements. The Dairy Premium and Additional Payment arebased on quota held at the qualifying date of 31 March 2004. The principle of decouplingallows farmers to make production decisions in response to the market; meanwhile,the European Commission is signalling the prospect of an end to dairy quotas by2013.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 March 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 16 March 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions have taken place with the European Union regarding the current basis on which the Dairy Premium and Additional Payment are calculated.
Answer
There have been no specific discussionswith the EU on the Dairy Premium and Additional Payment.
The Dairy Premium and AdditionalPayment formed part of the CAP reform package agreed by the EU Agriculture Councilin July 2003. The method of calculation was set out in Council Regulation (EC) 1782/2003adopted in September 2003. In Scotland, both the Dairy Premium and Additional Payment are basedon quota held at the qualifying date of 31 March 2004.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 March 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 16 March 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive to what extent Single Farms Payment entitlements are being traded; whether it is aware of any entitlements being purchased by those with interests based outside Scotland and, if so, whether it will provide details.
Answer
Since the start of the SingleFarm Payment Scheme on 1 January 2005, my department has received 1,687 applications to transferentitlements. This figure represents 1,252 individual businesses transferring entitlementsto 838 individual businesses. The detail of the number and value of entitlementstransferred is outlined in the following table:
| Type and Value of Entitlement Transferred | Total | From 15-05-05 to 2-03-2005 | From 3-05-05 to 2-03-2007 |
| | | Effective for the 2006 Scheme | Effective for the 2007 Scheme |
| A. Number of Set-Aside Entitlements a. Value of Set-Aside | 2,761.37 £622,891.28 | 36.05 £8,124.06 | 2,725.32 £614,767.22 |
| B Number of Standard Entitlements b Value of Standard | 160,834.17 £11,893,631.46 | 1,375.04 £240,728.324 | 159,459.13 £11,652,903.16 |
| C Number of Other Entitlements c. Total Value of Other Entitlements | 1.00 £174.05 | 0 0 | 1.00 £174.05 |
| D Total Number of All Entitlements Transferred (A+B+C) d. Total Value of All Entitlements Transferred (a+b+c) | 163,596.54 £12,516,696.80 | 1411.09 £240,728.32 | 162,185.45 £12,267,844.42 |
In the context of the SingleFarm Payment Scheme, the number of producers transferring entitlements represents8.3% of all producers holding entitlements and 4.1% of producers holding entitlementsacquired at least some of them by transfer. In volume terms, 3.8% of all entitlementshave been traded and in value terms, the trading represents 3.0% of the scheme’sannual expenditure.
Of the total number of businesses(838) acquiring entitlements by transfer, 22 have correspondence addresses outsideScotland and one of these is located outside the United Kingdom. All of these areregistered as Scottish businesses for the purposes of Environment and Rural AffairsDepartment support arrangements and are eligible to trade entitlements within Scotland.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 15 March 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to submit the Scottish Rural Development Programme to the European Commission.
Answer
We are unable formally to submit the Scotland RuralDevelopment Programme (SRDP) until there is agreement over the EuropeanCommissions proposed regulation on voluntary modulation. I am unable to saywhen this will be.
Drafts of the SRDP have been shared with the Commission forinformal comment. Sharing drafts with the Commission at this stage is intendedto allow the programme document to be finalised as much as possible in advanceof the voluntary modulation regulation being adopted.
