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Education authorities are required to make appropriate provision for all children with special educational needs, including those with speech and language impairment. In addition, Section 2 of the Standards in Scotland's Schools Etc Act 2000 places a legally enforceable duty on education authorities to ensure that the education they provide is directed to the development of the personality, talents and mental and physical abilities of children and young people.

The information requested is not held centrally. The September School Census collects information on the main difficulty in learning of pupils with Records of Needs. Each pupil with a Record of Needs is classified into one of a list of main difficulties in learning. The Executive is currently undertaking a review of the Records of Needs process and if there appears to be a need to alter the range and extent of statistical data collected, this will be given due consideration.

An extensive and far reaching review of the Enterprise Networks in Scotland was carried out by the Scottish Executive in 2000. This included benchmarking the networks in Scotland against economic development agencies elsewhere in the UK and in other countries. The strategy for enterprise A Smart, Successful Scotland sets out the direction and priorities for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise and includes the commitment to produce a framework to measure the performance of the networks in achieving the ambitions set for them by ministers. This framework will also be informed by the experience in other countries.

This information is not collected centrally. Grant-aided expenditure of £200 million for 2001-02 is available to local authorities to use in light of local needs and circumstances. Included in this figure is £6.5 million per year for speech and language therapy for pupils with Records of Needs.

A review of the present arrangements and a consultation paper on future strategy for accommodation services is being issued today.Copies of the paper will be available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. no. 14746).

The Scottish Executive has recognised the value of its initial rate relief scheme to affected businesses, detailed in Finance Circular 1/2001. We are therefore extending it for a further six-month period, until 31 December 2001. In addition, the rateable value threshold for additional support in Dumfries & Galloway and Scottish Borders Council areas will be raised to £50,000, with retrospective effect from 1 April 2001, in recognition of the scale of the effect of foot-and-mouth disease on businesses in these areas, and the resultant cost of relief to the councils concerned. As a further safeguard for all councils, any relief granted by a council under the scheme which is worth more than 0.7% of its total budgeted expenditure for this year will be supported at the increased rate of 98%.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Executive is committed to increasing Scotland's prosperity, and to stimulating high levels of sustainable growth. We are pursuing this through a range of policies and programmes, including those embraced in our strategy for the Enterprise Network, A Smart, Successful Scotland.

155 responses were received on the consultation in Scotland. The vast majority of these - over 95% - were critical, or rejected the proposals altogether. There was, however, widespread recognition in the responses that the status quo was not tenable and that action was required both to improve disease control and animal traceability. A number of variants on the proposals and alternatives to them were suggested.

We have decided that measures in this area will need to be set in the context of a total approach to disease control. Further work is being carried out on the proposals and on the variants and alternatives. The aim is to introduce new arrangements to take over as existing controls are lifted.

Copies of the consultation responses have been lodged with the Scottish Executive library, and with the Parliament's Reference Centre.

The Scottish Executive meets airlines, including British Airways and its franchise partners, on a regular basis to discuss a variety of issues including the cost of flights. The last meeting with British Airways was on 11 June 2001.