- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 15 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has transposed the EU directive on environmental liability into Scots Law and, if not, when it expects to do so.
Answer
The EU directive onenvironmental liability has not yet been transposed into Scots Law, although Iexpect to consult shortly on legislation which will transpose the directivelater in the year.
Last year’s publicconsultation on principles and policy for transposition, and a summary of theresponses, are published on the Scottish Government website.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 15 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers, in the absence of transposition, that the EU directive on environmental liability has direct effect in Scotland.
Answer
The EU directive onenvironmental liability is addressed to member states and the ScottishGovernment is engaged in the necessary process of consulting stakeholders onits implementation in Scotland. Following an initial consultation last year onprinciples and policy, I expect to consult shortly on draft regulations totranspose the directive.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 15 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the European Commission has indicated its satisfaction with the extent of EU habitats directive Annex 1 dune habitats proposed for classification as special areas of conservation in (a) Scotland and (b) the United Kingdom as a whole and, if not, what communications it has had with the European Commission on this matter.
Answer
The Official Journal of theEuropean Union records that on the basis of available information and inaccordance with the criteria for selecting sites (including rangerepresentation at a UK scale), UK representation for dune habitats is satisfactory. Thejournal can be viewed at:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2004/l_387/l_38720041229en00010096.pdf.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 15 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will support the proposed Sentencing of Offences Aggravated by Prejudice (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
Living in safe and strong communitiesis an essential part of the Scottish Government’s positive vision for Scotland. Fortoo many people that vision is blurred by the fear of crime and intolerance.
While good government needs aclear vision it must also deal decisively with immediate problems. To do otherwisewould compromise public safety. I can therefore confirm the Scottish Government’ssupport for the proposed Sentencing of Offences Aggravated by Prejudice (Scotland) Bill.This will extend statutory aggravations to cover crimes motivated by malice or illwill towards victims based on their sexual orientation, transgender identity ordisability.
No one in Scotland shouldbe targeted or victimised because of their sexual orientation, transgender identityor disability. Our clear aim is to prevent and deter crime but where crime doeshappen we must send a clear signal that it will not be tolerated.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 4 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps VisitScotland and Scottish Enterprise Grampian took to comply with sections 1 and 12 of the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 before publicly supporting a development proposal that would adversely affect a site of special scientific interest.
Answer
This is an operational matterfor VisitScotland and Scottish Enterprise and I have asked their Chief Executives to respond to you directly.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive which (a) ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) civil servants have spoken to journalists about the proposed development at the Menie Estate, Aberdeenshire, since September 2007, specifying in each case the relevant media outlets.
Answer
No records are keptof specific conversations between ministers, special advisers and civilservants with the media. However, I can confirm that communications officers onboth the Communications First Minister and Communications Finance desks have respondedto a range of media enquiries, as have media special advisers.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many planning applications have been determined as being of national significance before a local planning decision was made; how many were so determined after planning consent had been granted by the local planning authority, and how many after planning consent had been refused by the local planning authority in each year since 1999.
Answer
Over the period 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2007, Scottish ministers called in and determined 250 planning applications where the planning authority had not issued a decision but was minded to grant planning consent subject to notification to the Scottish ministers. No planning applications have been called in by Scottish ministers after a decision notice was issued by a planning authority.
Where a planning application is refused by a planning authority the applicant has the right to appeal to Scottish ministers. Appeals are heard by an inquiry reporter. Most appeal decisions are delegated to reporters but in cases where the application is judged to be a matter of national concern Scottish ministers can recall the appeal case for their own determination. Ministers can accept or reject the reporter''s recommendation. The number of appeals recalled for determination by Scottish ministers over this period is 98.
A breakdown of the yearly figures for called in applications and recalled appeals is provided below:
| Year | No. of Called in Applications | No. of Appeals Recalled |
| 1999 | 44 | 11 |
| 2000 | 30 | 16 |
| 2001 | 41 | 12 |
| 2002 | 18 | 7 |
| 2003 | 23 | 11 |
| 2004 | 37 | 8 |
| 2005 | 21 | 15 |
| 2006 | 17 | 8 |
| 2007 | 19 | 10 |
| Total | 250 | 98 |
The following is the original answer (published on 20 December 2007); see below.
Since 1999 Scottish ministers have called in 380 planning applications and have recalled 287 planning appeals for their own determination.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what criteria it uses to determine whether a planning application is of national significance.
Answer
It depends on the individualcircumstances of the case.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many planning applications it has called in for a decision by ministers after a local decision to refuse consent was made; how many of these were called in without an appeal by the developer, and how many were ultimately given planning consent by ministers in each year since 1999.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-7690 on 20 December 2007. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 19 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the strategies, plans or programmes that it has published have not been subjected to a strategic environmental assessment and what the reasons for the decision not to conduct a strategic environmental assessment were in each case.
Answer
The information requestedmay be divided into two specific categories under current Strategic EnvironmentalAssessment (SEA) legislation:
(a) Those strategies,plans and programmes to which the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005 does not apply, and
(b) Those that havebeen pre-screened out because they have no or minimal effect in relation to theenvironment.
In relation to thosestrategies, plans and programmes that fall into “category a” this information isnot held centrally.
Those that fall into“category b” are entered onto the pre-screening register, which can be accessedon the Scottish Government internet site.
www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/Pre-screening/Q/forceupdate/on.
