Modernising public local inquiries: Digest of responses to consultation paper

The consultation paper, Modernising Public Local Inquiries was issued in July 2003.This digest of responses has been prepared for the Scottish Executive by Professor Mark Poustie to help improve access to the detailed responses received.The aim has been to reproduce the essence of the comments fairly, grouping the material by the main stakeholder groups and the consultation questions

Environmental justice in SEPA's environmental protection activities: a report for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency

The purpose of this research project is to explore the extent to which SEPA can take account of environmental justice within its current legislative framework when making licensing decisions or carrying out enforcement activity. As a contextual background to this the project reviews current environmental justice developments in Scotland and selected international developments to assess how these developments will affect the environmental justice agenda in Scotland as well as SEPA's environment protection activities

Wildlife Crime Penalties Review Group Report

The report was commissioned by the Scottish Government to review the penalty levels available for wildlife crimes in Scotland and those actually imposed by the Courts. It was also commissioned to review alternative penalties. As well as doctrinal research into these issues the work involved empirical research with stakeholders. A series of recommendations were made to the Government including increasing maximum available penalties, harmonising the availability of alternative penalties, requiring the use of impact statements where possible and the introduction of Sentencing Guidelines in this field to increase the transparency and consistency of sentencing for wildlife crimes. Poustie was sole author (which can be confirmed with the SG) and the Review Group acted as a form of peer review panel in relation to the report

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Rights of appeal in planning - Response to the consultation paper

Public participation is a fundamental and long-standing element of our land use planning system. People must feel confident that they have been heard and have had their views taken into account when decisions are made about the future development of their areas. Those who have applied for planning permission, but had it refused by their council, can appeal to the Scottish Executive against that decision. In this consultation we ask whether others who are affected by planning decisions should be allowed a right to appeal

Planning call-in: 'scandalous' delay and partiality Lafarge

Redland Aggregates Ltd v Scottish Ministers 2000 SLT 136