- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how frequently it expects the exception under section 85(1)(b) of the Marine (Scotland) Bill to be disapplied by marine conservation orders in order to restrict the generation of renewable electricity in marine protected areas.
Answer
It is not possible to predict how frequently the exception in section 85(1)(b) of the Scottish Marine Bill will be disapplied as part of the marine conservation order process. Scottish Ministers do not intend to disapply section 85(1)(b) as a matter of course and would require a good case for such action. Such disapplication would require the consent of Parliament.
The generation of marine renewable energy is a priority for the Scottish Government, as is the conservation of marine biodiversity and cultural heritage. The Scottish Marine Bill provides for a planning regime that takes all these priorities into account. I believe it is right that the Scottish Government and Parliament should have this power to protect important marine features, even if the power is very rarely exercised.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how existing leasing arrangements for renewables installations will be taken into account by the designation process for marine protected areas under the Marine (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
There will usually be an opportunity in the new MPA process for other government departments, key stakeholders and other interested parties, to feed into the MPA development process before sites are taken to the stage of full public consultation.
Any existing lease holders will have the opportunity to raise any concerns, and these concerns can form part of the consideration under sections 59(5) and 61(3)(b) of the Bill for the site proposal.
It is Scottish ministers'' policy that there will be a presumption of use within the new MPAs, unless there is a good case for doing otherwise.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what types of benefits will be included in a definition of equivalent environmental benefit as referred to in section 72(4)(b) of the Marine (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30265 on 15 January 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.
- Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 December 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 15 January 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to produce guidance on the meaning of equivalent environmental benefit as referred to in section 72(4)(b) of the Marine (Scotland) Bill.
Answer
Marine Scotland will issue general guidance on how equivalent environmental benefit could be interpreted, and key environmental and industry stakeholders will be consulted on this guidance.
It is not be possible to specify in guidance each and every possibility which may arise and equivalent environmental benefit will in practice need be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
- 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 next expects to meet stakeholders to discuss the issue of within-business moves.
Answer
The Scottish Government meets regularly with stakeholders to discuss all issues relating to EU Regulation 21/2004. However, there are no future meetings planned for this particular 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 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.
