§ Mr. DarlingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, further to his answer to the hon. Member for Edinburgh, Central of 6 November, if he will list those moneys apportioned to the allocation provided to health boards for patient care and which was for the purpose of assisting in the preparation and proposals to establish each proposed national health service trust in Scotland.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThe information requested is as follows:
special scientific interest; the sum of each claim; when he expects a decision to be reached; and if he will make a statement.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonNo claims for compensation have been made. An application for grant was made to the Nature Conservancy Council for Scotland 487W (NCCS) on 11 October 1991 towards the cost of supporting the Greenland populations of barnacle and white fronted geese outwith sites of special scientific interest this winter. The application was made by the secretary of the Islay, Jura, Colonsay and Gigha branch of the National Farmers Union of Scotland on behalf of 60 farmers under section 134 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. In total it amounts to £762,450, including an administrative charge of £99,450. Section 134 empowers NCCS to give financial assistance in respect of expenditure incurred in doing anything which in the opinion of the NCCS is conducive to nature conservation.
The application is being considered by NCCS in the light of their review of the problems for agricultural land outwith the sites of special scientific interest posed by the feeding habits of migratory Greenland geese and of how those problems might best be handled in the shorter and longer term.