Seòmar agus comataidhean

Over the next three years the Scottish Executive spending on public transport as a proportion of the total transport budget (excluding capital charges) is budgeted to be: 2003-04: 64.2%, 2004-05: 66.4%, 2005-06 69.2%. The budgets for 2006-07 and 2007-08 will be set in the next spending review, which will begin in the autumn of 2003. The information sought on transport budgets is available in the transport chapter of Building a Better Scotland, which can be found at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/government/babs-11.asp.

The provision of bus and rail services is a matter for individual bus and rail operators and local transport authorities. The Executive provides substantial financial support to the bus industry to support the provision of services and is supporting the development of several infrastructure projects and enhancement schemes which will facilitate new passenger railway services. As outlined in A Partnership for a Better Scotland the Executive is committed to piloting better value bus services through a route development scheme to promote particular under-used routes. In addition the Executive will be looking to bidders to come forward with innovative proposals for new services during the franchise re-letting process for the Scottish passenger railway.

We are discussing with the Presiding Officer how best to establish budgetary arrangements which both enable the investigation to be as thorough and effective as it needs to be and provide for proper financial accountability to the Parliament. In parallel, the Scottish Executive and the Parliament are discussing with Lord Fraser and the Auditor General for Scotland the plans for the conduct of the investigation, so that a budget can be set. Lord Fraser has suggested that his fee should be set according to the standard scale rates and has offered to cap the total payment. The cost of the Auditor General's inquiry is, as with all his inquiries, a matter for the Auditor General and Audit Scotland rather than the Scottish Executive.

A Works Directive Periodic Indicative Notice, which advertised external cladding and windows packages for the new Parliament building, was published in the Official Journal of the European Community (OJEC) in February 1999.

I made clear in my statement on 19 June that Lord Fraser must have access to relevant papers. I am confident that the inquiry will have access to relevant papers.

The Scottish Executive has not met the Keepers of the Quaich and no such meetings are planned.

The Scottish Executive has stated that the regulatory regimes introduced under the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 will be selective, proportionate and streamlined and SEPA will be required to recover the costs incurred by its new duties by means of charging schemes. Safeguards have been built into the Water Framework Directive and the Water Environment and Water Services Scotland (Act) 2003 to ensure that economic and social issues are taken into account alongside environmental factors in the river basin management planning process. Section 2(4)(a) of the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 requires Scottish ministers, SEPA, and responsible authorities to exercise their functions with regard to the social and economic impact of that exercise.The new regulatory regimes will be subject to full consultation and will be accompanied by a regulatory impact assessment. Representatives from the whisky industry will have the opportunity to take part in that consultation. Furthermore, the industry will continue to have opportunities to influence a wide range of Water Framework Directive implementation issues through the Water Framework Directive National Stakeholder Forum, on which whisky industry representatives will sit.The Scottish Executive has consulted widely on issues relating to implementing the water framework directive on a number of occasions. The whisky industry has responded to all consultations and representatives of the Malt Distillers Association and the Scotch Whisky Association attended a national Water Framework Directive conference in March. All responses to consultation, and future consultation are published on the Executive website, unless recipients request that their contribution is treated in confidence.

Duty rates, tax differentials and EU minimum rates are matters reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Executive will continue to support the Scotch whisky industry to secure the best conditions at home and abroad.

According to figures compiled by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), the number of people directly employed by the Scotch whisky industry in the UK over the last four years is 1999 - 11,178; 2000 - 11,091; 2001 - 10,691, and 2002 - 10,438. A recent study by DTZ Pieda, on behalf of the SWA, concluded that, in 2000, distillers spent £689.72 million with Scottish suppliers of goods and services. As a result, 40,810 jobs in Scotland were indirectly supported by Scotch whisky production. Nearly 65,000 jobs were supported across the UK as a whole.The most recent research in the area of Gross Domestic Product concluded that in 2000, £807 million of income (principally wages and salaries) was generated in Scotland by Scotch whisky production. £1,311 million of income was generated in the UK as a whole. The value of exports in each of the last four years was 1999 - £2,093.7 million; 2000 - £2,156.4 million; 2001 - £2,295.0 million, and 2002 - £2,285.0 million. No statistics are available about prospects over the next four years.

The Scottish Executive and the industry have an on-going commitment to work together to secure the best conditions possible, at home or abroad, for the benefit of the industry, the jobs it supports and the wider economy of Scotland.