- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 June 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in securing additional quota for white fish stocks.
Answer
International quota swaps area regular and important feature of the UK’s quota management arrangements. To date this year, some36 international swaps have been concluded, securing almost 13,000 tonnes of additionalquota, including around 4,400 tonnes of North Sea haddock. The Executive will continueto pursue further opportunities as the year progresses where they are in the bestinterests of the Scottish industry.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 27 June 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps have been, and will be, taken to support the development of a supply chain for the emerging offshore wind sector to ensure that Scotland derives maximum economic benefit from commissioned projects.
Answer
We are committed to providing£3 million support to the deep-water off-shore wind demonstrator project being developedby Talisman in the Moray Firth. Substantial elements of this project are being sourcedfrom manufacturers based in Scotland. More generally, both Scottish Enterprise and Highlands andIslands Enterprise devote considerable efforts to develop local supply capability.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 June 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what input it has had to discussions with the European Union in respect of changing the timing of the annual fishing quota negotiations that currently take place prior to Christmas and what progress these discussions have made.
Answer
The Commission has recently publisheda Communication on
Improving Consultationon EU Fisheries Management. The documentcan be found here:
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/fisheries/doc_et_publ/factsheets/legal_texts/docscom/en/com_06_246_en.pdf.Whilst the Commission does notrecommend a change in the timing of the fishing year itself, it proposes a numberof measures designed to achieve greater stakeholder engagement and earlier and fullerdiscussions of proposals.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 22 June 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what role it considers that smart meters can play in improving energy efficiency in homes and whether it has any plans to promote their introduction.
Answer
The Scottish Executive supports,in principal, any measure that can help raise awareness of energy consumption andencourage behavioural changes amongst the public to reduce carbon emissions in homes.
The Scottish Executive is currentlyawaiting the outcome of an Ofgem consultation into the benefits and costs of smartmetering, and further details of DTI’s smart metering pilot scheme before we considerwhat action we might take.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 June 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to provide support to the fish processing industry, particularly in the white fish and pelagic sectors.
Answer
Nineteen awards totalling £2.7million have been made to the white fish sector under the Financial Instrument forFisheries Guidance (FIFG), Processing and Marketing Grant Scheme. This has supportedtotal new investment of almost £14 million. 35 awards totalling some £6.6 millionhave also been made by the scheme to the pelagic sector. This has supported totalnew investment of almost £33 million.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 22 June 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made to promote energy efficiency in the (a) domestic and (b) commercial sectors.
Answer
The Scottish Executive continuesto promote energy efficiency in the domestic and commercial sectors by funding thework of the Energy Saving Trust and the Carbon Trust in Scotland. In2006-07, funding amounted to over £10 million. These organisations provide a rangeof support including information, advice and guidance on reducing energy use andfree on-site energy audits for business.
In the domestic sector the ScottishExecutive has so far spent over £276 million on its fuel poverty programmes, providingcentral heating systems to over 69,000 homes and insulating over 229,000 under theWarm Deal.
The Scottish Executive is alsocurrently developing the first Energy Efficiency Strategy for Scotland, whichis due for publication later this year.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by George Lyon on 22 June 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what energy costs were incurred by each local authority in each of the last three years and what energy costs have been budgeted for by each local authority for the current year, showing year-on-year percentage changes and national totals.
Answer
Information on local authoritybudgeted expenditure for energy costs is not held centrally. However, local authorityexpenditure on operating expenses, which includes energy costs, is given intable 1 of the publication
Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics,copies of which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. Thereference numbers of the three most recent of these publications are given below.
| Bib. Number | Year |
| 38657 | 2004-05 |
| 35476 | 2003-04 |
| 32947 | 2002-03 |
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 22 June 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on claims that the French Government has provided fuel subsidies to its fishing industry and what steps have been taken at EU level to raise this issue.
Answer
The Commission’s investigationof the French scheme found that it did not meet state aid rules. I understand theCommission is pursuing the matter but corrective action is a matter for the particularmember state and the Commission.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 21 June 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time was for chiropody treatment in each NHS board area in each of the last three years.
Answer
The information requested isnot available centrally.
The first nationalcollection of information on waiting times for services provided by AlliedHealth Professionals, including chiropody and podiatry, was undertaken on 14 September 2005. Theresults from this census will be published by ISD Scotland on 6 July 2006 andwill be available via its website:
http://www.isdscotland.org/.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 21 June 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to promote safety at sea for fishermen.
Answer
The Executive is promotingsafety at sea for fishermen by providing grant aid to fund fishermen’s safetytraining and to assist fishermen with the costs of purchasing safety equipment.Across the UK the issue of general marine safety is a reservedfunction delivered through the Maritime and Coastguard Agency of the Departmentof Transport.
