- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 14 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to EU Regulation 21/2004 on the identification of sheep and goats, when it last met stakeholders to discuss the issue of within-business moves.
Answer
The Scottish Government met with stakeholders on 21 December 2009 to discuss this issue.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 12 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to EU Regulation 21/2004 on the identification of sheep and goats, what research it is undertaking to examine the continued viability of within-business moves.
Answer
Within-business moves is not currently applied to the sheep and goat identification system and therefore there is no question of continued viability. As with all proposals, the Scottish Government utilises all available information to assist with the decision making process. With regards to within-business moves, the following information has been considered: data and movement populations, epidemiological issues and risks, legal aspects and practical issues faced by farmers.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 12 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to EU Regulation 21/2004 on the identification of sheep and goats, when it plans to publish guidelines or regulations on within-business moves.
Answer
The Scottish Government will publish guidance on all aspects of EU Regulation 21/2004 in the early part of 2010.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 18 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have received support from the Energy Assistance Package in 2009-10, broken down by parliamentary constituency.
Answer
Statistical Information is not held at constituency level. The following table shows the households helped under the Energy Assistance Package (EAP) to the end of November 2009, analysed by local authority.
The type of support provided includes energy saving advice, assistance with benefits, advice on social tariffs, energy payment methods, insulation measures and installation of heating systems.
Households Helped Under EAP, from April to End November 2009
| Aberdeen City | 679 |
| Aberdeenshire | 1,094 |
| Angus | 815 |
| Argyll and Bute | 583 |
| Clackmannanshire | 243 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 970 |
| Dundee City | 803 |
| East Ayrshire | 706 |
| East Dunbartonshire | 667 |
| East Lothian | 441 |
| East Renfrewshire | 652 |
| Edinburgh, City of | 2,073 |
| Eilean Siar | 372 |
| Falkirk | 955 |
| Fife | 2,408 |
| Glasgow City | 2,196 |
| Highland | 1,789 |
| Inverclyde | 665 |
| Midlothian | 389 |
| Moray | 497 |
| North Ayrshire | 963 |
| North Lanarkshire | 1,452 |
| Orkney Islands | 174 |
| Perth and Kinross | 883 |
| Renfrewshire | 816 |
| Scottish Borders | 626 |
| Shetland Islands | 50 |
| South Ayrshire | 824 |
| South Lanarkshire | 1,691 |
| Stirling | 639 |
| West Dunbartonshire | 379 |
| West Lothian | 733 |
| No Value* | 15 |
| All Scotland | 28,242 |
Note: *The address verification process requires a valid post code in order to assign the address to a local authority. Occasionally with new builds the post code is not available with the Ordnance Survey data used by the database and therefore cannot be assigned to a local authority via the verification process. The post code data in the database is updated regularly and as it is updated the properties are assigned to the relevant local authority area.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 16 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have received Stage Three or Stage Four support from the Energy Assistance Package in 2009-10, broken down by parliamentary constituency.
Answer
The Energy Assistance Package adopts an holistic approach to tackle fuel poverty: helping to maximise household incomes though benefits and tax credit checks; reducing fuel bills by providing advice on wise energy use and access to social tariffs and improving the energy performance of the poorest performing Scottish homes by providing a package of measures for those most vulnerable to fuel poverty.
Statistical Information is not held at constituency level.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 16 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average cost per claimant has been of the Stage Three and Stage Four measures issued under the Energy Assistance Package in 2009-10, broken down by parliamentary constituency.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-29720, on 16 December 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Scottish Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://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: Friday, 04 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 16 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have had their gas supply disconnected in the last 12 months as a result of outstanding debt, broken down by parliamentary constituency.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-29735 on 16 December 2009. 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.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 16 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have had their electricity supply disconnected in the last 12 months as a result of outstanding debt, broken down by parliamentary constituency.
Answer
The Scottish Government funds the Energy Saving Trust (EST) to provide free, comprehensive energy saving advice through the Energy Saving Scotland advice centres. Advisors signpost any callers reporting debt issues to appropriate money advice services.
EST manage the Energy Assistance Package (EAP) for the Scottish Government. EAP is a holistic approach to tackling fuel poverty that addresses both the home and the householder and includes services to maximise income, reduce fuel bills and improve energy efficiency. The package is supported by a budget of over £60 million in 2009-10.
Domestic energy suppliers have a number of licence obligations in relation to debt and disconnection and performance against these is monitored by the industry regulator Ofgem. Suppliers are required to report their performance to Ofgem on a quarterly and annual basis and data is published on the Ofgem website.
The total number of gas and electricity disconnections in Scotland due to debt in 2008 and the first two quarters of 2009 is provided in the table below. The information is not available broken down by Scottish parliamentary constituency.
| | 2008 | January to March 2009 | April to June 2009 |
| Gas | 248 | 21 | 91 |
| Electricity | 368 | 14 | 24 |
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 16 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost has been of the Stage Three and Stage Four measures issued under the Energy Assistance Package in 2009-10, broken down by parliamentary constituency
Answer
The cost of measures delivered under the Energy Assistance Package is analysed at national level.
The Energy Assistance Package is supported by a budget of over £60 million in 2009-10, which is drawn from budgets for fuel poverty, tackling poverty and energy saving Scotland home renewables (formerly SCHRI). Fuel poverty budget spend to date is £17.133 million.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to distribute Scotland’s share of the recently announced 300 million euro EU funding package for the dairy industry to ensure that the producers experiencing the greatest difficulty will receive adequate support.
Answer
A final decision on how to distribute the EU funding to the Scottish dairy sector will be made after the views of stakeholders have been received.
