Policy Statements and Initiatives
ScotGov: First Minister, Alex Salmond, spoke at the Caithness Regeneration Conference in Thurso last week, where he outlined Scottish Power’s plans to set up a new energy company, as well as identifying Isla and the Pentland Firth as the first sites for commercial tidal farms, saying: “The Pentland Firth is the Saudi Arabia of marine power. Our seas alone could provide 25% of Europe’s tidal power and 10% of wave power”.
The First Minister also announced the Crown Estates decision to open the Pentland Firth seabed for applications for commercial marine energy projects to generate more than 700MW of energy by 2020.
Press release ~ Scottish Power Renewables ~ Scottish Governments Energy Consents Unit ~ Crown Estates ~ Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland
CLG: A new regional strategy that directs long-term housing, economic growth and environmental protection in the North West has been announced by Communities Minister Baroness Andrews. A vision for sustainable social and economic development in the North West up to 2021 is unveiled in the North West of England Plan.
The Plan aims to raise the economic performance in the North West by supporting the provision of new job opportunities and reducing local inequalities, while also protecting the North West's environment.
Press release ~ North West of England Plan (click on top Regional Spatial Strategy – Caution: Very large File) ~ Revised projections of households in the English regions to 2026
Defra: The number of cases of BSE and scrapie, included in a family of brain diseases called Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs), in Great Britain has continued to fall. Following consultation on TSE responsibility and cost-sharing proposals which ended earlier this year, Defra has announced how testing for TSEs will be managed in future.
In 2007 there were 53 confirmed cases of BSE compared to 37,000 in 1992 and 82 confirmed cases of scrapie, compared to 597 in 1999. Further reductions are expected in 2008. Defra has therefore decided that industry will now take control of the cost of collecting & disposing of fallen adult cattle. From mid-January 2009, the free collection & disposal service for adult cattle that have died or been killed on farm will end.
Press release ~ TSE proposals for England ~ MHS charging proposals ~ National Fallen Stock Company ~ Defra - Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)
ScotGov: There will be a review of the guidance governing co-payments - the ability of a patient to access treatments not available in the NHS in the private sector, while concurrently receiving the rest of their treatment on the NHS.
Speaking ahead of a Public Petitions Committee sponsored debate in the Scottish Parliament, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon acknowledged that the issue was difficult & controversial, but pledged that new guidance would seek to combine the rights of the individual with robust clinical governance and the founding NHS principle that treatment should be based on clinical need not on the ability to pay.
