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Forty-nine responses were made to the consultation exercise which ended on 30 September, including a number received after this date. These are being analysed at present and I hope to announce the outcome of the review early in the New Year.

The Scottish Management and Enterprise Council has received support from the Scottish Executive to map the current provision of management development training in Scotland as an aid to employers and individuals, including small- and medium-sized businesses.Scottish Equity Partners continues to manage the two venture capital schemes - Scottish Equity Partnership and Scottish Technology Fund (TSF) - set up by Scottish Development Finance as joint Public/Private Partnership. Both funds have now been substantially invested. Together with evaluation of a range of other public sector supported funds (Business Growth Fund, Eastern Scotland Investments, Strathclyde Investment Partnership) the current evaluation of STF will provide a basis for any future decisions on public sector investment in this area.

The Executive has introduced a number of measures aimed at improving access to procurement opportunities. A website, www.scotland.gov.uk/procurement, was launched in November 1999. The site provides information on the types of goods and services the Executive procures and guidance for those wishing to sell to the Executive. In 2000, the Executive introduced an online "business enquiry" service (available through the website above). The business enquiry service provides an easy way for potential suppliers to register their interest in selling to the Executive.Also, UK ministers recently announced that bidders for Government contracts were no longer to be required to have three years audited financial accounts and were no longer to be required to assume unlimited liability in all cases. I am pleased to say that the Executive already operated on this basis.

The National Grid for Learning (NGfL) Progress Report, published by the Executive in August 2001 at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/education/nglr-00.asp, sets out the achievements in the first three years of the NGfL programme. In addition to the £80 million investment in infrastructure, these include assistance for more than 10,000 teachers so far to buy a computer for home use, development of a wide range of digital learning material and seminars to share best practice. All teachers in Scotland are also eligible for ICT training aimed at classroom practice through the New Opportunities Fund programme.

Financial resources are provided by the Scottish Executive to schools through education authorities, and to further education (FE) colleges via the Scottish Further Education Funding Council. The Executive places a high priority on ensuring that both school and college students have a wide range of opportunities to develop technical and information and communication technology related skills. For instance, £29 million is being provided to FE colleges over the period 1999-2002 specifically for investment in all aspects of ICT.

The Scottish Executive tries to ensure that all guidance, including guidance on compliance with regulations, is in plain English. For example, the Good Business Practice Guidance on writing forms and guidance notes, Good Practice Guidance on Consultation and the Executive's training courses on effective writing all stress to officials the importance of using plain English. The Small Business Gateway in the Scottish Enterprise area and Business Information source in the Highlands and Islands area provide easy access (by phone, online or face to face) to a range of information, advice and support for anyone interested in setting up or expanding a business. Information is presented to meet the varying requirements of business, from a simple overview to detailed guidance. The material available from the Small Business Gateway includes simple to understand guides on key aspects of business labelled "In a nutshell". The need for further guides is kept under continuous review.

The Scottish Executive is strongly committed to improving the extent of commercialisation of research, as detailed in the:Report of the Knowledge Economy Taskforce, published in April 1999: (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library/documents-w9/knec-00.htm); the Knowledge Economy Cross-Cutting Initiative Report :(http://www.scotland.gov.uk/government/ketf_ccr.pdf), published in February 2001, andA Science Strategy for Scotland (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/education/ssfs-00.asp) published in August 2001. The Scottish Executive's survey Intellectual Property Commercialisation in the Scottish Higher Education Sector, published in August 2001, indicates that the sector has already made encouraging moves in this direction, with most universities now having established technology transfer offices (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/who/elld/reports/finalreport.asp). Commercialisation is supported by a variety of publicly funded initiatives, with our intention being to provide a pipeline of support at every stage along the path from university laboratory to full-scale production. These include the Scottish Enterprise/Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowships, Scottish Enterprise's Proof of Concept Fund; and the Executive's SMART, SPUR and TCS schemes, all of which have been started or enhanced since 1999. Last year, the Scottish Institute for Enterprise was established, with £4 million funding from the UK Department of Trade and Industry to provide opportunities for scientists and potential scientific entrepreneurs to obtain the necessary management and business skills. It was recently awarded a further £2 million to expand its work. In my annual guidance letter last year, I encouraged the Scottish Higher Education (SHEFC) Funding Council to continue its work in promoting commercialisation and to ensure that funding streams reflected this. As a result, SHEFC has set up a new Knowledge Transfer Grant of around £6 million per year, and a joint SHEFC and Scottish Enterprise working group has also been established to consider how the two organisations can achieve greater complementarity in their policies for promoting commercialisation and innovation.

There is no requirement for education authorities or independent schools to submit such reports to the Scottish Executive, and we have no record of having received any.

We have no record of having received any such communications or reports, and there is no requirement for such material to be submitted to the Scottish Executive by the Health and Safety Executive.

The recent report of the Discipline Task Group, Better Behaviour - Better Learning, contains 36 recommendations aimed at improving discipline within schools. Every teacher in Scotland now has a summary of the report, and later this month I shall be publishing an Action Plan for implementation of the recommendations.