- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Bruce Crawford on 30 October 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions since 1999 it or its agencies have refused to answer inquiries from members of the UK Parliament by virtue of their status as members of the UK Parliament.
Answer
Statistical information is not available to answer this question.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 30 October 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has estimates of the number of children under the age of 16 involved in organised sports.
Answer
Statistics on children''s participation in sport are available from
Children''s Participation in Culture and Sport, which can be found on the Scottish Government website at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/08/12161714/0
These figures are based on children''s self-reporting of their participation in sport. The reported rates of participation in school based sport are somewhat higher than would have been expected. This may be a reflection of young people''s perception that PE, sport and physical activity are all in essence sport.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 27 October 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many footbridges, underpasses or similar types of infrastructure for pedestrians there are on each (a) motorway and (b) trunk road.
Answer
There are 145 trunk road footbridges recorded within Trunk Road Bridges Database (TRBDB):
(a) 38 are on the trunk road motorway network
(b) 107 are on the A Class trunk road network.
There are 200 trunk road underpasses, with either vehicular and pedestrian or pedestrian provision, recorded within TRBDB:
(a) 42 on the trunk road motorway network
(b) 158 on the A Class trunk road network.
There are 252 over-bridges that cross the trunk road and most have pedestrian provision:
(a) 143 are over the trunk road motorway network
(b) 109 are over the A Class trunk road network.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 27 October 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what direction exists in guidance or statute to allow the provision of infrastructure for pedestrians to cross motorways or trunk roads.
Answer
The statutory power that allows the Scottish Executive as trunk road authority to provide infrastructure for pedestrians to cross motorways or trunk roads is contained in section 26 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984.
Section 26 states, The roads authority may, for the purpose of making the crossing of a public road less dangerous for pedestrians or of protecting traffic along the road from danger, construct, light, and maintain subways under, or footbridges over, the road for the use of pedestrians.
Transport Scotland has the operational responsibility for this area and can be contacted for more information if required.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 9 October 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what obligations the owners of land designated as set-aside have to maintain that land.
Answer
Farmers/crofters only have to set land aside if they have Single Farm Payment Scheme (SFPS) set-aside entitlements and they wish to receive payment on them. To receive full payment on their set-aside entitlements they must set aside one hectare of eligible land for each set-aside entitlement they hold. Set-aside land is any agricultural area of the holding taken up by arable land, except areas which on 15 May 2003 were under permanent crops, forests, or used for non-agricultural activities or under permanent pasture.
But, due to the low levels of stocks of cereals both at community and world level, the subsequent high prices during 2007, and concern over maintaining the level of future stocks of cereals, the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council approved a derogation proposed by the European Commission to reduce set-aside to zero for autumn 2007 and spring 2008 sowings. As a result, farmers/crofters with SFPS set-aside entitlements were not required to take land out of production in order to receive payment under the scheme in 2008. They could, however, still set land aside on a voluntary basis.
Farmers/crofters who set land aside on a voluntary basis in 2008 had to manage the land in line with the set-aside management rules. These rules prohibit agricultural production and place restrictions on the management of the green cover during the set-aside period 15 January to 31 August 2008. Full details of the set-aside rules are available at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/10/20108/45382.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 October 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what powers exist to bring arable land that is not being used for agricultural production into use for that purpose.
Answer
Land use decisions are a matter for individual land managers. Set-aside requirements have been suspended for 2008. If they are abolished as part of the EU''s Common Agricultural Policy Health Check, then it is to be expected that arable land previously used for set-aside will be brought into or remain in production.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 October 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what benefits to agriculture it considers are derived from the set-aside scheme.
Answer
Set-aside was introduced in 1992 as a tool for reducing surplus production in the arable sector, to permit better management of the market. Since then the Common Agricultural Policy has undergone significant changes which have largely removed the problem of surplus arable production. In addition to this primary function, set‘aside has also produced environmental benefits.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 September 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 October 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S3W-16043 and S3W-16044 by Richard Lochhead on 19 September 2008, what the difference is between the area claimed as set-aside in the table in the answer to question S3W-16043 and the area designated as set-aside (Ha) in the answer to question S3W-16044.
Answer
The figures shown in S3W-16043 detail the set-aside land claimed on the area aid application 2003 and 2004 to support claims submitted under the arable area payments scheme and the set-aside land claimed on the single application form to claim payment on the set-aside entitlements allocated under the single farm payment scheme.
The figures shown in S3W-16044 are from the June agricultural census (JAC). And are generally higher than the land claimed for subsidy because the JAC figures can include land that has been voluntarily set-aside and is not subject to support scheme rules.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 24 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the number of delayed trains reported in each year from 1990 to 2005, broken down by (a) electric and (b) diesel-powered type.
Answer
The Scottish Government took over management of the franchise in October 2005, and therefore Transport Scotland does not hold this information.
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 24 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the number of reported breakdowns of trains in each year from 1990 to 2005, broken down by (a) electric and (b) diesel-powered type.
Answer
The Scottish Government took over management of the franchise in October 2005, and therefore Transport Scotland does not hold this information.