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In my statement of 22 August, I did not say that a majority of the scallop industry supported our proposals for scallop conservation. I said that a majority of the industry supported our proposals. That reflected the fact that our consultation exercises were addressed to the Scottish fishing industry as a whole, not just to scallop fishermen, and that the responses showed the Scottish fishing industry as a whole to be supportive of our proposals. I stand by this interpretation of the responses to our consultation exercises, and by the need for additional conservation measures. However, what has since become clear is the strength of opposition from parts of the scallop sector in particular. That is something on which I am reflecting in my continuing discussions with the Rural Development Committee.

My answer to question S1W-30170 on 16 October 2002, explained that negotiations on trade contracts for the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood are carried out on a commercially confidential basis, and that it would not be appropriate to name publicly those contractors who have yet to provide a performance bond. The same principle applies to all contractors and I am therefore unable to list those contractors, or provide any of the associated information requested, on this occasion.

The Scottish Executive has no current plans to alter the 15-month NHS registration period with a dentist.

EU legislation requires member states to submit applications for such funding by 1 June. The Executive is aware that due to an administrative oversight a submission from the UK was not submitted by that deadline. Administrative procedures have been amended to avoid a repetition in the future. Discussions are currently under way with Commission officials to establish whether there is any scope to consider an EU contribution to the 2003 TSE surveillance programme costs.

Over 1.7 million Ha of agricultural land in Scotland are rented under full tenancy agreements (that is, tenancies under the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1991 with traditional secure tenants or limited partnership tenants, including minor holdings) (source: Scottish Agricultural Statistics, Scottish Executive, 2001). As I explained in the answer given to question S1W-28914 on 18 October 2002, there were estimated to be around 14,000 full tenancy agreements under the 1991 act active in Scotland in 2001. We do not hold information centrally which subdivides this figure further. On the basis of the above information, we estimate that the average size of a holding under a full tenancy agreement in Scotland is around 120 Ha.A Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) survey estimated that around 64% of such tenanted land is held under 1991 act tenancies with a traditional secure tenant (source: Land Tenure Patterns in Scotland, RICS Scotland, 1995, Table 1). This would mean that around 1 million Ha of agricultural land in Scotland are held under traditional secure 1991 act tenancies.All answers to written parliamentary questions can be found on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

A member of the Parliament's staff has been appointed, following an internal competition, to undertake the duties of Opening Ceremonies Manager on a temporary basis. The decision to make the appointment was taken by the Corporate Body on 25 June 2002. The reasons for the appointment are as follows: experience of the 1999 Opening Ceremony pointed towards the need for one or more dedicated members of staff; the work of the Opening Ceremonies Steering Group requires to be supported and the contributions from different sections of parliamentary staff require to be co-ordinated; communication with and monitoring of the work of an external events co-ordinator, once appointed, will best be managed through the post; calls on the budget provisionally allocated for the Opening Ceremonies will be monitored by the manager. His substantive post has been advertised internally, to be filled on a temporary basis. No recruitment costs, other than staff time, have been incurred. To date, no savings have accrued. I will write to the member directly with the other details requested.

No.

No.

No correspondence has been received from HRH The Prince of Wales by the SPCB.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body has incurred approximately £156,000 of expenditure on hospitality over a 39-month period, since July 1999. The cost of identifying each individual event and those present over the last three years would not be justified.