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Under section 17A, Scottish Ministers may by regulations prescribe classes or descriptions of licensable marine activity which will be subject to pre-application consultation. This is a new provision introduced to the bill during stage 2 and as yet exact details of the marine activities which would fall within the scope of the provision have not been determined. There will be a full consultation process on any relevant regulations but it is likely that minor, small scale projects or repairs would fall outwith the scope of the provision.

We have received an application to amend the Scottish Farmed Salmon PGI from the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation. Once this application is finalised the Scottish Government will issue it for public consultation.

Section 27 of the Marine (Scotland) Bill allows the marine licence and the Section 36 consent to be considered together. This will allow for a streamlined decision making process. If a project has received a section 36 Electricity Act consent it will still require the relevant marine licence for certain parts of the project to proceed. As such, it is only right that the applicant should have the right to appeal in the unlikely event that a marine licence is refused. In such cases appeal is likely to be to the sheriff court.

Information on the proportion of households who defaulted on energy bill payments in the last 12 months is not held centrally.

No meetings are scheduled at present as the new commission has yet to be agreed and finalised by the European Parliament.

Officials from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland met with Commission officials in February 2009 to discuss proposals to revise the Cross Compliance payment reduction systems as a result of the 2008 audits in England and Wales.

The Commission made it clear at this meeting that they expected the majority of Cross Compliance breaches to result in a 3% payment reduction otherwise significant disallowance (EC fines) would apply. This approach was further confirmed and clarified in the Commission audit letters to Wales and later to Northern Ireland following their audit in spring 2009.

At our request the UK raised the issue of Cross Compliance penalties at the Council of Ministers on 16 December 2009 and we will press for meetings to be held with the new Commission to keep our concerns on the agenda.

Stakeholders were alerted to the review of payment reduction levels in January 2009, following the audits in England and Wales in 2008. We had meetings with them and kept in touch as the review progressed. The revised cross-compliance payment reduction system was discussed with stakeholders at a meeting on 5 November 2009, prior to writing to land managers later that month.

The rules for CAP payment reductions under cross-compliance are laid down in European legislation. In general breaches of cross-compliance should result in a reduction of 3% being applied to a beneficiaries payments for one year under the Single Farm Payment Scheme, Scottish Beef Calf Scheme, Energy Crop Scheme, Protein Crop Premium, Less Favoured Area Support Scheme and certain management options claimed under the Land Managers Options Scheme and Rural Priorities.

Prior to 2009, most breaches of cross-compliance in Scotland were resulting in a 1% reduction or a warning letter as this was considered to be appropriate for the seriousness of the breaches that were being found. We have now been forced to increase the payment reduction levels under cross-compliance because recent EC audits in Scotland, the UK and across Europe, have ruled the current penalty systems too lenient.

These increases must be implemented to avoid potential, costly penalties on the Scottish Government from the EU which could have a detrimental and unjust effect on the level of funds available to all farmers and other land managers. The cross-compliance payment reduction systems in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were also tightened up in 2009 following their EC audits.

We are looking at the detailed results of European Commission audits across the rest of Europe and speaking to other member states who have been audited to confirm the position in their countries.

All cross-compliance inspections are carried out according to clearly laid down procedures across Scotland and the results and any penalties that are applied are monitored on a national basis.