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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-36728

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 28 October 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that any penalties incurred by claimants resulting from an over declaration of eligible land under the Single Farm Payment and Less Favoured Area Support schemes are fair and proportionate.

Any reductions in the area claimed, as a result of declaring land over and above what would otherwise be considered as eligible are calculated on the basis of a physical measurement using modern mapping and measurement technologies. Each calculation of land area is also informed by an assessment of eligibility by a professional trained agricultural officer. This methodology ensures that the deduction is reasonable. With the issue of proportionality, the Scottish Government''s Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate does not have any discretion to vary the level of penalties as these are set by the European Commission. The penalty regime, however, differentiates between over declarations committed intentionally, for which the level of penalty is severe, and those committed through oversight where the level of penalty varies according to the scale of the over claim and the eligible land found.

Question reference: S3W-36734

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 28 October 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken to mitigate the impact of any penalties incurred by claimants as a result of an over declaration of eligible land under the Single Farm Payment and Less Favoured Area Support schemes.

The Scottish Government''s Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate (SGRPID) does not have any discretion to vary the level of penalties. Only the EC can alter the penalty regime by changing its legislative base. SGRPID''s approach to mitigation, therefore, is to help farmers and crofters to claim only land that is eligible for support and, thus, avoid penalties. It has done so by setting out what constitute eligible land in guidance booklets supporting its subsidy schemes, by holding around 20 public meetings, in cooperation with the National Farmers Union of Scotland, that were attended by over 2,000 farmers to hear how they could safeguard their CAP payments and by issuing a personal letter to farmers detailing how they could avail themselves of provisions to amend applications forms to remove ineligible land and avoid penalties.

Question reference: S3W-36735

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 28 October 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with stakeholders regarding the penalty regime associated with an over declaration of eligible land under the Single Farm Payment and Less Favoured Area Support schemes.

The Scottish Government''s Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate (SGRPID) has worked with the National Farmers Union of Scotland (NFUS), and taken its advice, on how best to communicate with farmers and crofters on how they can avoid penalties by claiming only land that meets eligibility requirements. A number of meetings were held between senior officials, NFUS'' office bearers, and senior official with the aim of minimising any loss of support due to over declaration penalties. At a public level, SGRPID and NFUS worked together to put this objective into practice. Firstly, a series of public meetings to remind farmers about their obligations to claim only eligible land, secondly, SGRPID''s Chief Agricultural Officer provided articles for The Scottish Farmer on the same themes and thirdly, after consultation with NFUS, SGRPID issued a personal letter to all farmers likely to be involved with either the Single Farm Payment Scheme and / or the Less-Favoured Area Support Scheme, containing advice on how to avoid penalties.

Question reference: S3W-36730

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 28 October 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many inquiries each Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate (SGRPID) office has received regarding Single Farm Payment and Less Favoured Area Support schemes land eligibility since January 2010 and how these figures compare with the number of inquiries received over the same period in 2009.

Question reference: S3W-36736

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 28 October 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that claimants who have incurred penalties resulting from an over declaration of eligible land under the Single Farm Payment and Less Favoured Area Support schemes have an opportunity to appeal.

All farmers and crofters have a fundamental right of appeal against the recovery, reduction, or refusal of subsidy for whatever reason. This right is provided by The Rural Payments (Appeals) (Scotland) Regulations 2009 (Scottish Statutory Instrument 2009/376, 20 November 2009). Those affected are advised of this right in the letters issued by Scottish Government''s Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate advising them of any revisions to claimed eligible areas.

Question reference: S3W-36731

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 28 October 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many claimants it expects to be affected by penalties arising from an over declaration of eligible land under the Single Farm Payment and Less Favoured Area Support schemes in 2010-11.

Question reference: S3W-36732

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 28 October 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how much support it expects to be withheld from claimants in 2010-11 as a result of penalties arising from an over declaration of eligible land under the Single Farm Payment and Less Favoured Area Support schemes.

Question reference: S3W-36593

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 21 October 2010

Question reference: S3W-36664

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 01 October 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 21 October 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S3W-36066 and S3W-36059 by Stewart Stevenson on 30 September 2010, whether its “regular ongoing contact about ferry services in Scotland with a range of public bodies” included discussions with (a) Orkney Islands Council, (b) Shetland Islands Council and (c) Argyll and Bute Council regarding its plan to extend the Road Equivalent Tariff pilot on the Western Isles routes for a further 12 months before that decision was (i) taken and (ii) announced.

Question reference: S3W-36525

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 September 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 4 October 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications there have been for Stage Four measures under the Energy Assistance Package; how many (a) were rejected, (b) were withdrawn and (c) are under consideration; for how many (i) the improvement work has been completed, (ii) the improvement work is underway, (iii) surveys have been undertaken but the improvement work has yet to start, (iv) surveys have yet to start, and what the average time is from the submission of an application to the completion of the improvement work, broken down by local authority area.

15,066 applications were referred to Stage Four of the Energy Assistance Package in the financial year 2009-10. Of these, five were duplicates, leaving 15,061. Of these 15,061 applications, by the end of August 2010:

a. 2,799 had been rejected because they were not eligible and a further 696 were cancelled before the initial screening process because the managing agent was unable to reach the customer, total 3,495;

b. 2,160 had been withdrawn, and

c. None were still under consideration.

i. 7,910 had received installations;

ii. 1,031 had work underway;

iii. 465 have had surveys undertaken but improvement work yet to start;

iv. None still had surveys yet to start.

The average time from referral to Stage 4 to installation was 68 days. An analysis by local authority area is given in the following table:

Energy Assistance Package: 2009-10 Stage 4 Applications Received and Processed by Local Authority Area: Status at End August 2010

	Applications	a. Rejected	b. Withdrawn	Stage 4 Measures			Average Delivery Time (Working Days)
	Applications	a. Rejected	b. Withdrawn	i. Installed	ii. Under-way	iii. Surveyed, Work Yet to Start	Average Delivery Time (Working Days)
Aberdeen City	349	87	38	198	17	9	75
Aberdeenshire	563	106	77	308	52	20	89
Angus	390	82	67	207	21	13	69
Argyll and Bute	404	70	81	198	38	17	96
Clackmannanshire	94	22	7	62	3	0	64
Dumfries and Galloway	713	117	154	367	50	25	93
Dundee City	506	114	55	312	16	9	55
East Ayrshire	240	53	34	145	4	4	58
East Dunbartonshire	302	90	52	156	2	2	54
East Lothian	222	46	37	121	12	6	65
East Renfrewshire	272	70	47	145	5	5	57
Edinburgh, City of	920	248	155	466	34	17	61
Eilean Siar	1,045	188	172	294	278	113	90
Falkirk	375	106	35	220	8	6	64
Fife	1,062	257	146	589	46	24	66
Glasgow City	1,209	356	153	667	22	11	55
Highland	1,262	267	175	565	185	70	88
Inverclyde	209	58	30	112	9	0	60
Midlothian	188	42	20	112	4	10	53
Moray	288	49	42	176	18	3	82
North Ayrshire	429	102	50	254	11	12	65
North Lanarkshire	692	166	65	442	9	10	53
Orkney Islands	141	26	28	42	39	6	82
Perth and Kinross	434	81	57	247	30	19	72
Renfrewshire	343	89	40	203	5	6	56
Scottish Borders	343	61	59	191	24	8	83
Shetland Islands	55	10	8	10	19	8	152
South Ayrshire	322	61	65	178	10	8	64
South Lanarkshire	771	208	90	434	33	6	60
Stirling	466	124	64	244	19	15	59
West Dunbartonshire	224	72	25	123	2	2	59
West Lothian	228	67	32	122	6	1	59
Scotland	15,061	3,495	2,160	7,910	1,031	465	68