- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 29 July 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 24 August 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, when assessing fish stocks and preparing advice for future stock management, the Fisheries Research Services Marine Laboratory takes into account the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership’s research, which shows that climate change is causing the distribution of some fish species to move north, which suggests that all stock reductions cannot be attributed to fishing effort alone.
Answer
Marine Scotland Science (formerly Fisheries Research Services) is fully aware of the work of the Marine Climate Change Impact Partnership (MCCIP) research and contributes to this research. Stock assessment methodologies are designed to be robust and can accommodate small changes in fish stock distributions. The impacts of climate change are considered when advice is formulated.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 29 July 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 24 August 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it ensures that the European Commission (EC) is kept fully aware of the results of the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership’s research, which shows that climate change is causing the distribution of some fish species to move north, so that, when the EC makes recommendations for fish quotas, quotas in the northern parts of a fish species’ distribution are not cut because of climate change-induced reductions in its southern parts.
Answer
The Marine Climate Change Impact Partnership (MCCIP) is responsible for the publication and dissemination of its results. Marine Scotland Science scientists highlight these results at meetings of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and of the European Commission''s Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) when appropriate.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 29 July 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 24 August 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, given the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership’s research, which shows that climate change is causing the distribution of some fish species to move north and which may make the collection of thorough comparative fish stock data more difficult, whether the Fisheries Research Services Marine Laboratory will increase its use of data collected by fishing boats so that it makes use of all available fish stock data.
Answer
Marine Scotland Science (formerly Fisheries Research Services) is fully aware of the work of the Marine Climate Change Impact Partnership (MCCIP) research and contributes to this research. Stock assessment methodologies, including survey design and sampling strategies, are designed to be robust and can accommodate small changes in fish stock distributions. However, Marine Scotland Science continues to work with the fishing industry to collect relevant accurate data on the health and status of Scottish fish stocks.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how much ancient woodland was lost in each of the last five years.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-32887 on 28 April 2010 which set out the total amount of woodland felling in each of the past five years. A breakdown of these figures into the various categories now requested is not readily available at present. Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) records show that the total amount of private sector woodland approved for felling over the past five years without a replanting condition was 678 hectares. However, certain categories of felling (including felling associated with planning permission) are exempt from felling licence requirements, and no central records are held on exempt felling.
Current work on improving the National Forest Inventory and implementing the policy on the Control of Woodland Removal will provide additional information on woodland loss. In addition, the Native Woodland Survey being carried out by FCS will provide maps and estimates of recent losses of native and ancient woodland related to development and other causes.
All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at:
www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hectares of woodland were lost due to (a) restoration of open ground habitats, (b) clearance for wind farms, (c) loss to development and (d) loss of hedgerow trees in each of the last five years.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-32887 on 28 April 2010 which set out the total amount of woodland felling in each of the past five years. A breakdown of these figures into the various categories now requested is not readily available at present. Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) records show that the total amount of private sector woodland approved for felling over the past five years without a replanting condition was 678 hectares. However, certain categories of felling (including felling associated with planning permission) are exempt from felling licence requirements, and no central records are held on exempt felling.
Current work on improving the National Forest Inventory and implementing the policy on the Control of Woodland Removal will provide additional information on woodland loss. In addition, the Native Woodland Survey being carried out by FCS will provide maps and estimates of recent losses of native and ancient woodland related to development and other causes.
All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hectares of native trees have been approved for planting in the next planting season through the Scotland Rural Development Programme.
Answer
There are 4,430 hectares of native woodland approved for new planting in the next planting season through the Scotland Rural Development Programme.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hectares of native woodland were lost due to (a) restoration of open ground habitats, (b) clearance for wind farms, (c) loss to development, and (d) loss of hedgerow trees in each of the last five years.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-32887 on 28 January 2010 which set out the total amount of woodland felling in each of the past five years. A breakdown of these figures into the various categories now requested is not readily available at present. Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) records show that the total amount of private sector woodland approved for felling over the past five years without a replanting condition was 678 hectares. However, certain categories of felling (including felling associated with planning permission) are exempt from felling licence requirements, and no central records are held on exempt felling.
Current work on improving the National Forest Inventory and implementing the policy on the Control of Woodland Removal will provide additional information on woodland loss. In addition, the Native Woodland Survey being carried out by FCS will provide maps and estimates of recent losses of native and ancient woodland related to development and other causes.
All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 23 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hectares of native trees, including Scots pine, were planted in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) public land, (b) private land and (c) Forestry Commission conservancy area.
Answer
The areas of new native woodland planted on private land over the last five years, broken down by Forestry Commission Scotland Conservancy, are shown below. Details of new planting on the national forest estate are not kept by conservancy, but the total amount of new native woodland planted over the same five year period is around 230 hectares.
Areas in Hectares (ha) of New Native Woodlands
| Conservancy | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 | Total |
| Central | 100 | 208 | 583 | 24 | 85 | 1,000 |
| Grampian | 217 | 614 | 251 | 78 | 57 | 1,217 |
| Highland and Islands | 1,886 | 957 | 857 | 337 | 775 | 4,812 |
| Perth and Argyll | 342 | 791 | 412 | 256 | 137 | 1,938 |
| South Scotland | 184 | 689 | 312 | 243 | 210 | 1,638 |
| Total Scotland | 2,729 | 3,259 | 2,415 | 938 | 1,264 | 10,605 |
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 30 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any payments under the current funding round of the Rural Development Contracts – Rural Priorities scheme have been delayed and, if so, (a) how many, (b) for what reason, (c) what the total value is of such payments, (d) what action is being taken to allow the payments to be made and (e) when those awaiting payments can expect to receive them.
Answer
(a) There are delays in processing 613 annual recurrent claims, and 209 capital claims under Rural Priorities.
(b) On the annual recurrent side, the delay is due to officials continuing to clear computer generated errors, which emerged during the processing of these claims. These include cases where claimants have changed their approved schedule of work, or have amended their original contract, and/or have differences between the areas claimed and those found at inspection. On the capital side, the main reason for the delay is that a number of claims lack all of the required supporting documentation. Such claims are not valid to be paid and officials have to contact claimants to obtain the missing data. This can cause delays if claimants do not respond quickly, or do not have the required information to hand.
(c) There is some £4.6 million of outstanding annual recurrent claims, and some
£4.5 million of capital claims.
(d) New systems are being introduced to speed up the processing of annual recurrent payments. There are no current delays with processing valid 2010 RP capital claims.
(e) We aim to pay all annual recurrent claims by 31 August 2010 and earlier where possible, within the strict confines of EU legislation. Payment of the outstanding capital claims is entirely dependent upon receipt of the required information.
The current position on Rural Priorities payments is set out in the following table.
| Rural Priorities (RP) Payments | No. of Claims Received | No. Paid | Value of Claims Paid £m | No. of claims Received but Not Paid | Estimated Value of Unpaid Claims £m |
| RP Annual Recurrent 2009 | 1,150 | 537 | £3.70 | 613 | £4.61 |
| RP Capital (to date) | 2,452 | 1,991 | £35.30 | *209 (2009 claims) | £4.50 (2009 claims) |
Note: *There is a published target to pay capital claims within three months of receiving a valid claim. The remaining unpaid capital claims are still within that deadline.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 30 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any payments under the current funding round of the Rural Priorities scheme have been delayed and, if so, (a) how many, (b) for what reason, (c) what the total value is of such payments, (d) what action is being taken to allow the payments to be made and (e) when those awaiting payments can expect to receive them.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-34671 on 30 June 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
