Chamber and committees

I have asked Professor Hawkins, Chief Executive of Fisheries Research Services to respond. His response is as follows:A summary of the activities of the two fisheries research vessels, Scotia and Clupea, is provided in the table. The output from the stock survey cruises, when combined with additional information from sampling at fish markets and surveys of discards on commercial vessels, provides the Scottish input to internationally co-ordinated assessment work by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas. Recent assessments of particular relevance to Scotland are:

Herring Assessment Working Group for the Area South of 62ºN 13-22 March 2001Working Group on Nephrops Stocks 3-11 April 2001Working Group on the Assessment of Demersal Stocks in the North Sea 19-28 June 2001and SkagerrakWorking Group on the Assessment of Northern Shelf Demersal Stocks 14-23 August 2001

Date	Area	Task
Scotia
5-14 January	Firth of Forth, Firth of Tay, Moray Firth, Minches, Firth of Clyde, Solway Firth	Sampling of water, bottom sediments and fish to assess the biological effects of pollutants
18 January - 6 February	North Sea - Firth of Forth to Shetland	International trawling survey to assess the brood strengths of juvenile demersal fish stocks
7 - 24 February	N/A	Annual refit
25 February - 13 March	North coast of Scotland, Minches, Outer Hebrides to 10° degrees W., North West of Ireland, Irish Sea	International trawling survey to assess the brood strength of juvenile demersal fish stocks.
17-28 March	Statfjord oilfield, site midway between Shetland & Norway, site in German Bight, two sites between German Bight and Aberdeen.	Sampling of water, plankton and fish, to assess the biological effects of pollutants.
2-6 April	Aberdeen Bay, Moray Firth, North Coast of Scotland	Development of new sampling equipment, calibration of sonar systems.
10 April - 1 May	North of Scotland, Hebrides, West of Ireland, Celtic Sea	International triennial mackerel egg survey --aimed at providing a spawning stock estimate for mackerel.
4-18 May	Northern North Sea, Faroe-Shetland Channel	Hydrographic surveys and servicing of current meter/tide gauge moorings to investigate ocean climate change.
19-23 May	Firth of Forth, Moray Firth, East of Orkney	Sampling of fish for evidence of disease and to assess the biological effects of hydrocarbons.
7-29 June	Fladen, Noup, North Minch	Estimation of the distribution and abundance of Nephrops and to derive stock assessments for these areas.
3-23 July	North of Scotland, Hebrides, West of Ireland, Celtic Sea	International triennial mackerel egg survey --aimed at providing a spawning stock estimate for mackerel.
3-23 July	North western North Sea from the Moray Firth to Shetland - excluding Norwegian and Faroese waters	International herring acoustic and fishing survey - aimed at providing an estimate of herring stock size in this area.
26 July	Peterhead	Open day on vessel for fishermen and the general public.
27 July - 19 August	North Sea from 54 - 61 degrees North	International trawling survey to provide an index of abundance of demersal fish stocks.
Clupea
Date	Area	Task
8-25 January	N/A	Annual Refit
26 January - 8 February	Loch Nevis, Loch Hourn, Loch Duich, Loch Alsh, Loch Kishorn	Fishing, acoustic, plankton and grab surveys to establish the abundance and distribution of fish, shellfish and plankton in these areas.
14-27 February	Shetland	Scallop fishing survey to provide an estimate of scallop abundance and distribution for stock assessment purposes.
5-16 March	Wee Bankie, Marr Bank, Berwick Bank - off the Firth of Forth	Sandeel abundance and relating the distribution to the characteristics of the sea bed sediments and hydrography of the area.
2-11 April	Loch Torridon, Loch Duich, Loch Sunart	Chemical, hydrographic and sealice surveys to provide information on the environmental impact of salmon farms.
25 April - 11 May	Clyde, North Channel, Minches, Shetland, Moray Firth	Sampling of sewage sludge and other dump sites around Scotland for chemical and microbial analysis and to assess the environmental impact of these sites.
22 May - 11 June	Wee Bankie, Marr Bank, Berwick Bank areas - off the Firth of Forth	Sandeel abundance, distribution and population age structure, examining the relationship between sandeels and other fish species present.
15 June - 2 July	Scottish coast from Firth of Forth to Orkney	Scallop fishing survey to provide an estimate of scallop abundance and distribution for stock assessment purposes.
6-20 July	Loch Torridon, Loch Ainort, Loch Duich	Chemical, hydrographic and sealice surveys to provide information on the environmental impact of salmon farms.
7-22 August	Shetland	To carry out a sandeel abundance survey for stock assessment purposes.

This is a matter for Audit Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally

The variation of fees is based on recommendations by the Gaming Board following a study of the board by the National Audit Office. It is designed to ensure that the licensing authorities (which in Scotland are the local authorities) recoup their costs without profit or loss, and without cross-subsidy between casino and bingo licensing. We have not calculated the specific revenue implications for local authorities, but expect the changes to be broadly neutral.

The table below sets out the cost to NHSScotland of paracetamol dispensed in the community over the period 1995-96 to 1999-2000.

Financial Year	Gross Ingredient Cost (£)	Dispensing Fees (£)	Total Cost (£)
1995-96	740,522	721,494	1,462,016
1996-97	744,958	717,107	1,462,065
1997-98	746,841	710,215	1,457,056
1998-99	805,643	749,800	1,555,443
1999-2000	952,438	837,261	1,789,699

A number of areas of current work cover aspects of GP workload. They are as follows:

• The National Primary Care Research and Development Centre in Manchester is currently undertaking a survey which covers GP workload and which will have the ability to compare the position in Scotland with the rest of the UK
• The Remote And Rural Areas Resource Initiative (RARARI) is currently looking at recruitment and retention in remote and rural areas
• An initiative looking at reducing bureaucracy has identified a number of areas where workload and bureaucracy can be reduced and we are currently taking these forward with the Scottish General Practitioners Committee of the BMA

Continuous Morbidity Recording (CMR) is an on-going information system which feeds back regular data on workload issues such as face to face clinical contacts between GPs and patients.

Local authorities have now completed changes to their billing software, and have begun rebilling beneficiaries of the Water and Sewerage Charges Reduction Scheme. Rebilling is expected to be completed by October. Reductions will be backdated to 1 April 2001 where appropriate.

The number of accidents in each of the last seven years (1994-2000) at the junctions of the A90 with (a) the A975 at Longhaven and (b) the unclassified Gask road at Longhaven is as follows:A975 Junction

Year	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
1994	0	0	3	3
1995	0	0	5	5
1996	0	0	3	3
1997	0	0	0	0
1998	0	0	2	2
1999	0	0	1	1
2000	0	0	0	0
Total	0	0	14	14

Gask road Junction

Year	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
1994	0	0	0	0
1995	0	0	0	0
1996	0	0	0	0
1997	0	1	1	2
1998	0	1	0	1
1999	0	0	0	0
2000	0	0	0	0
Total	0	2	1	3