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The Scottish Executive has no plans to introduce in Scotland a body similar to the Small Business Administration in the United States of America. Public sector support for small businesses in Scotland is delivered primarily through Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and we are currently reviewing the existing Enterprise Network in Scotland. We will also give careful consideration to any recommendations which emanate from the inquiry into Scotland's local economic development services by the Scottish Parliament's Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee. The Executive is determined to ensure that public sector support for business in Scotland meets the needs of the twenty-first century.

The Improving Regulation in Scotland Unit will pursue business concerns about the burden of regulation and will work closely with small business representative groups to ensure that the particular needs of small businesses are kept to the forefront of policy making throughout the Executive. My officials in the IRIS Unit will soon be arranging the first of a series of meetings I plan to have with business across the country to hear at first hand about the regulatory problems they are encountering.

This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Executive believes that corporate venturing can bring significant benefits to both small businesses and their larger corporate partners, and we want to encourage the establishment of more such relationships in Scotland. The Executive therefore fully supports the UK Government's commitment to introduce corporate venturing tax incentives in this year's Finance Bill and we have asked Scottish Enterprise to consider specific initiatives to help stimulate a culture of corporate venturing in Scotland.

The CAP pigs regime does not provide direct support to pig farmers. This sector does benefit indirectly through EU funded private storage aids and export refunds, although the benefit to the Scottish industry cannot be accurately quantified.The following table lists offers of known financial support which have been made to this sector over the past five years.Offers of financial assistance made to the pig industry 1995-1999 (£'000s)

1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
547	578	100	319	3,100

Yes. Changes are necessary to provide a mechanism to offer probationary tenancies to former tenants who have been guilty of anti-social behaviour. This is not possible under existing legislation.

I have recently asked officials to devise a Framework for Economic Development in Scotland. It will address a range of questions relating to Scotland's economic development and should provide an integrated and coherent framework within which to consider a range of economic policy questions such as the roles of inward investment and indigenous business. An extensive consultation exercise is currently underway. This involves face-to-face meetings between officials and a wide range of interested parties across Scotland and an open invitation to any other individuals or organisations, through a press release and consultation paper on the Scottish Executive web site, to submit their views.

The Scottish Executive has received no representations from the Dyslexia Institute Bursary Fund (Scotland).The Scottish Executive is providing over £5 million in 2000-01 to local authorities for in-service development and training of staff working with pupils with special educational needs, including dyslexia. £1 million of this funding is directed towards staff working with pupils in the early years of primary school.

When there is a change of Administration of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, there is a long established convention that a new Administration does not normally have access to papers of a previous Administration of a different political complexion. The convention covers, in particular, Ministers' own deliberations and the advice given to them by officials, other than written advice from the Law Officers and those papers which were published or put in the public domain by the predecessor Administration.In applying the convention to the devolved administration in Scotland any information contained in administrative and departmental records belonging to a Minister of the Crown or a UK Government Department is treated as if it were contained in papers of a previous Administration of a different political complexion. This convention, therefore, qualifies the right conferred upon the Scottish Ministers by Article 10(2)(b) of the Transfer of Property (Scottish Ministers) Order 1999 (SI 1999/1104) to have access to certain administrative and departmental records belonging to a Minister of the Crown or a UK Government Department. In practice this means, in particular, that Scottish Ministers do not normally have access to advice given to Scottish Office Ministers or to the deliberations of those Ministers in papers dated before 1 July 1999, unless they have been published. Written opinions of the UK Law Officers which date from before 1 July 1999 may be made available.

We do not intend to consult further on this matter, but we will listen to any arguments expressed during Stage 2 of the Bill's progress both about the 100 metre rule and about the proposed notices procedures introduced in sections 17 and 18 of the Bill.