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The Crofters Commission employs the services of locally based agricultural staff of the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department to compile reports relating to apportionment applications. In carrying out these responsibilities, the agricultural staff are expected to take a fair and impartial view and follow guidance from the Crofters Commission. They apply their professional and technical judgement in assessing the information obtained through inspection and discussion with the applicant and other affected parties and aim to ensure that all aspects of a case are brought out in the report. At all times they are expected to operate to the Scottish Executive Aim, Vision and Values. Those values include integrity, honesty, objectivity, political impartiality and fairness. Reports are monitored and countersigned by a senior officer. There is also a system of Quality Management Checks whereby an office manager ensures consistency of standard and impartiality. These are random checks so the officer concerned cannot know which cases may be selected. In addition the Crofters Commission will make the report available, on request, to the person applying for the apportionment. A reporting officer may make a recommendation but the Crofters Commission decides each application and may or may not accept such a recommendation.There is currently no mechanism for an appeal against the content of a report made to the Crofters Commission by a member of the agricultural staff of the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department.

The Board of Commissioners of the Crofters Commission set and revise the rules and procedures that govern the way the Crofters Commission undertakes its various regulatory functions. Paragraph 11 of schedule 1 to the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 provides that the Commission has power to regulate its own procedure. The current rules are the Rules of Procedure of the Crofters Commission 1999. The commission may change the rules and procedures from time to time but must clear their proposals with the Scottish Committee of the Council for Tribunals. The rules and procedures must also, at all times, be consistent with the statutory requirements of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993. It is for the Chairman, the Board of Commissioners and the Chief Executive of the Crofters Commission to ensure that in its day to day operations the Crofters Commission operates in accordance with its own rules and procedures. Anyone who considers that there was a failure to do so should raise their concerns with either the Chairman or the Chief Executive of the commission who will review the case to ensure that it has been properly and fairly handled in accordance with these rules and procedures. If after such action there are unresolved concerns about the handling of the case that suggest there has been maladministration, it would be appropriate to pursue the matter with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. Alternatively, if it is believed that the Crofters Commission acted unlawfully or that a decision made by the commission was unreasonable then the more appropriate recourse might be to seek judicial review of the decision taken by the Crofters Commission.

The system used to carry livestock on ferries is an operational matter for the companies concerned, provided that the system complies with all the relevant statutory requirements.

I understand that NorthLink is renting the Livestock Trailers. The rental is one of the costs to the company of transporting livestock and the company will, in the normal course, recover those costs by the charge per head of livestock transported. In terms of the undertaking by the Scottish ministers approved by Parliament on 13 June this year, NorthLink can claim Tariff Rebate Subsidy from the Executive to cover a percentage of that total charge. I understand that NorthLink has had discussions with local National Farmers Union of Scotland office-bearers on this issue.

Officials are in regular contact with agricultural representatives, NorthLink and Aberdeen Harbour Board on a variety of issues including lairage at Jamieson's Quay. No approach has been made to the Executive by Norse Island Ferries on the issue of lairage at any of the ports.

I have been assured that all existing information relevant to the decision taken by the Crofters Commission has now been sent to Mr and Mrs Ramsay. I understand that the Crofters Commission intends to offer Mrs Ramsay a hearing on the decision relating to her apportionment on the understanding that the original decision and the conditions attached to it could be modified in the light of any relevant evidence presented.

The Crofters Commission is required to comply with the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information.

There are no specific restrictions on the investigatory powers of the ombudsman in respect of complaints made against the Environment and Rural Affairs Department or the Crofters Commission. General restrictions and exclusions on the Ombudsman's investigatory powers are set out in sections 7 and 8 of, and Schedule 4 to, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002 (asp 11).

Policy in respect of apportionment applications is a matter for the Crofters Commission. The policy of the Crofters Commission is that there will be a presumption against approval of apportionments where the Grazings Committee has entered into a management scheme which provides financial or other benefits for the township and where apportionment may prejudice that scheme. The Executive's policy was to accept all eligible applications to join an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) scheme until the schemes closed to new applicants in [December 2000. The ESA scheme conditions are binding on all crofters in the common grazings.

At present, with the exception of decisions relating to de-crofting and re-letting, the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 provides that all decisions by the Crofters Commission, including decisions regarding procedures to be adopted in handling individual cases, are final. There is no formal route of appeal other than to challenge such decisions by seeking judicial review or, if it is believed that there has been maladministration, by recourse to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.This is why we proposed a new coherent and consistent system of appeals against all Crofters Commission regulatory decisions in the consultation document Crofting Reform Proposals for Legislation, published in July of this year.