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Scottish Office News Release 0553/99 was issued to main media outlets, and also the relevant specialist trade press list on March 8, 1999. As with all news releases, it is available on the Scottish Office website and was available on the Bulletin Board for a week after the date of issue.

The Scottish Executive will lay regulations before the Scottish Parliament introducing a ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship. The terms of the draft regulations are currently subject to UK-wide consultations. Under these proposals, the ban on tobacco advertising would come into force on 10 December this year and tobacco sponsorship in line with EU deadlines outlined in the EU Directive 98/43/EC dated 6 July 1998 The consultation period comes to an end on 13 August and Scottish regulations will be tabled shortly thereafter. A parallel set of regulations covering the rest of the UK will be laid at Westminster on a similar timescale.

The Scottish Executive has carefully considered the evidence which exists from other countries on the effect of bans on tobacco advertising and sponsorship on tobacco consumption. Such evidence was assessed in the 1992 Department of Health (Economic and Operational Research Division) publication 'Effect of Tobacco Advertising on Tobacco Evidence:A Discussion Document Reviewing The Evidence'. The evidence from countries which had introduced bans indicated a significant effect. In each case, the banning of advertising was followed by a fall in smoking on a scale which could not reasonably be attributed to other anti-smoking measures in operation in these countries such as increased health education and tighter restrictions on sales of tobacco to young people.

The Scottish Executive has no plans to publish this information. The rate of return achieved by the private sector will depend on how successful they are in managing risk during the life of a contract. The operators' accounts will be publicly available.I announced on 24 June that the Scottish Executive will make available the annual expenditure commitments associated with Government public-private partnerships, sector by sector. In addition, for future projects Full Business Cases will be published, which will show whether projects represent value for money.

No. I refer Mr Ewing to my reply given to his question (S1W-00261) on 9 July 1999.

There are no proposals to upgrade the A82 between Tarbet and Inverness.

Consultation papers were issued by The Scottish Office in July 1997 and September 1998 on problems which had arisen with the application of the insolvency procedures under the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985. We are considering the need for legislation in the light of the consultation responses.

No decision has been made on the introduction of road user charges on any trunk road or motorway, the roads for which the Scottish Executive is responsible. If any such proposals are developed in the future, they will be the subject of full consultation. In terms of other roads, the proposed Transport Bill will legislate to allow local authorities to introduce road user charging on roads for which they are responsible. The coverage of any such schemes will, therefore, primarily be a matter for individual authorities but all schemes will require the approval of Scottish Ministers.

Scottish Natural Heritage's published advice to Government includes the estimate that total core operating costs for a National park in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, once up and running, would be £2.4m per year. New and existing programme costs were estimated at £2.5-£3.0m per year. Funding arrangements will be settled as we draft the National Parks Bill.I refer the member to the answer I gave to question (S1W-00218) on road user charging.

Since trunking the road in 1996, improvements to a total value of £3.24m have been completed at Dulnain and Craggan. There are no current plans to undertake further improvements on the A95.