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Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has referred 21 notifications to the Advisory Committee on Sites of Special Scientific Interest (ACSSSI) since 1996. The table shows the number of cases regarding the notification of a Site of Special Scientific Interest which were referred to the ACSSSI in the five years from 1996 to 2000. Information for 2001, up to 11 October, is also provided. The statutory function of the ACSSSI is to provide advice to SNH regarding notifications and it is not possible to categorise this advice as simply for or against SNH. The table therefore shows a breakdown of ACSSSI responses under the following five categories:

• ACSSSI agree with SNH case, notification scientifically soundly based and no modifications required;
• ACSSSI agree with SNH case, notification scientifically soundly based but some adjustment to boundaries or citation could be considered;
• ACSSSI agree with SNH case, notification scientifically soundly based but boundary modification recommended;
• some doubts exist over the scientific case and re-examination on a different basis required to verify case before confirming, and

• scientific case not made.

ACSSSI responses 1996 - 11 October 2001

Year	No. cases referred to ACSSSI	Agree with SNH case no modification required	Agree with SNH case but adjustments to boundaries or citation could be considered	Agree with SNH case, but boundary modification recommended	Some doubts over overall case to be clarified by SNH before proceeding	Case not made
1996	0	0	0	0	0	0
1997	0	0	0	0	0	0
1998	7	4	0	2	0	1
1999	1	0	0	1	0	0
2000	8	3	4	1	0	0
2001(to 11/10)	5	1	1	1	1	0
Total	21	13	5	5	1	1

In 17 of the above cases SNH acted on the advice given by the ACSSSI. In three cases SNH did not accept the ACSSSI advice. Advice on one case is still to be considered by SNH.

Details of the applications made to date under the Rural Stewardship Scheme (2001) for each area office are given in the table.

Area Office	Not exceeding £1,000	Over £1,000 but not exceeding £10,000	Over £10,000 but not exceeding £50,000	Over £50,000 but not exceeding £100,000	Over £100,000
Ayr	-	-	21	10	10
Benbecula	-	2	-	-	-
Dumfries	-	1	18	10	2
Dundee	-	-	9	6	-
Galashiels	-	1	20	20	28
Grampian	-	1	54	27	17
Hamilton	-	1	3	4	1
Inverness	1	13	34	13	8
Kirkwall	-	1	15	3	3
Lairg	-	-	-	1	-
Lerwick	-	-	1	1	-
Oban	-	-	6	14	3
Perth	-	1	7	6	5
Portree	-	5	6	-	-
Stirling	1	-	14	10	5
Stornoway	-	3	6	-	-
Thurso	1	1	10	6	6
Total	3	30	224	131	88

No.

Under S.28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, Scottish ministers, the local authority and every owner and occupier of property within a proposed Sites of Special Scientific Interest are entitled to be consulted and to object to notification on scientific, or any other, grounds. There is no statutory entitlement to object to Special Protection Area or Special Area of Conservation proposals.

The main element of the Water Industry (Scotland) Bill is the creation of Scottish Water as a single all-Scotland water and sewerage authority, with the key objective of providing services to customers across Scotland more efficiently than can be done by the existing three water authorities separately. Customers in the island communities currently served by North of Scotland Water (NSW) will benefit from this in the same way as other customers. In addition, and in common with other NSW customers, future increases in water charges will be lower than would have been the case as a result of the charge harmonisation across Scotland that will follow the creation of Scottish Water.

Operating costs per day at sea for FRV Scotia:

1998-99: £5,474

1999-2000: £5,098

2000-01: £5,140

None of the 19 projects referred to in the answer to question S1W-17911, undertaken by the Fisheries Research Services (FRS), involved the use of the fisheries research vessel Scotia. The costs of Scotia have not been, and will not be, charged to the £1 million Partnership funds I announced earlier in the year. However, any appropriate data gathered by Scotia during routine FRS studies will be amalgamated with any relevant extra information obtained during the charter surveys undertaken under the aegis of the partnership board.

The members of the Aquaculture Tripartite Working Group are: the Scottish Executive, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards, the Association of West Coast Fisheries Trusts, Scottish Anglers National Association, Atlantic Salmon Trust and Scottish Quality Salmon.

The group published a report and Concordat in July last year. Copies are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

As a result of the group's work, six area management agreements, including an umbrella agreement which will lead to five further agreements, have been signed.

The work of the group is on-going.

The Scottish Executive is currently undertaking a review of all coastal waters around Scotland, as part of the UK's obligation to examine areas where eutrophication occurs, or may be likely to occur. This assessment is still to be completed, and so a list of sites cannot be provided at present.

The Continuous Plankton Recorder project (CPR), maintained by the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation, provides important information on the composition and abundance of algae present in the north east Atlantic. The data generated by this project are utilised as part of many assessments of the marine environment. Their particular relevance to the assessment of the environmental effects of aquaculture is in the observation of changes in coastal plankton and the influence of fluctuating oceanic currents on this process. A report using CPR data is being prepared on this question with regard to the issue of eutrophication in UK coastal waters. It is expected to be available in mid-2002.