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A letter from the Forum of Private Business in Scotland has been received and I have agreed to meet them.

The Scottish Biodiversity Forum's IACS Year Calendar 2003-04 was issued with Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) packs to all IACS producers in the spring of this year. The distribution of the IACS year calendars in the IACS packs was jointly authorised by Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department's agricultural staff, CAP Management and Countryside and Natural Heritage divisions. Following issue of the IACS Year Calendar 2002-03 last year, the Scottish Biodiversity Forum's Agriculture Working Group (AWG) invited NFUS Farming Leader recipients to provide feedback on the calendar, in particular whether one should be produced for 2003-04. Eighty-eight per cent of questionnaire respondents requested an IACS Year Calendar for 2003-04 and on the basis of that result, AWG members agreed that another calendar should be produced. It was clear from the responses that a majority of IACS producers considered the calendar to be valuable not only in biodiversity terms but also for highlighting key dates for events and grant and subsidy scheme deadlines. The IACS year calendars are not Scottish Executive publications but have been produced by the AWG. A wide range of organisations is represented on the AWG (now known as the Rural Land Use Working Group) and several have been directly involved in creating and contributing to the cost of the two calendars.The production and issue of IACS year calendars to almost 20,000 IACS producers in 2002 and 2003 is just one of several ways the AWG has gone about fulfilling its remit of raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity and encouraging its protection and enhancement. Such publications will contribute towards farmers' understanding of the natural environment and how important their role is maintaining biological diversity in the countryside. This is particularly worthwhile as farmers become involved in a more environment-focused CAP system, cross-compliance and other environmental issues. A copy of the IACS Year Calendar 2003-04 was sent to 19,725 IACS producers at an additional postage cost of £6,706.50. The total cost of producing 20,000 and distributing 19,725 IACS Year Calendars for 2003-04 was £16,819. As in the previous year, all these costs were met by the AWG.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-927. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

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.