Chamber and committees

As RossFinnie’s response to your previous related written question S2W-4617 on 15 December 2003, and my reply of 21 January 2004 to your letter of 17 November 2003 made clear, this is an operationalmatter for Scottish Water. In the normal course, the Chief Executive ofScottish Water would be asked to reply to you.

Iunderstand that he wrote to you in November and December last year about thisissue, and Scottish Water will be writing again shortly to all stakeholderswith a further update on progress at Campbeltown. In these circumstances, Ihave nothing to add to the content of that correspondence.

Day to daymanagement and promotion of the Livestock Improvement Schemes is a matter forthe Crofters Commission.

An ad hoc group of ministerson tourism has been examining the state of Scottish tourism, and the publicexpenditure devoted to it. We are considering the outcome of the area tourist boardreview in the context of these wider issues. We need a support structure forthe sector that is not only right for today’s market but will stand us in goodstead for the future, because this is an industry with a long term future. Wehope to announce the group’s conclusions in due course.

This is an operationalmatter for the chief executive of Scottish Water and I have asked him to writeto you about this matter.

Our planning policy guidanceis given in National Planning Policy Guideline 6: Renewable EnergyDevelopments. Forestry Commission Scotland serves as the Executive’sforestry department. The corporate plan for the Forestry Commission in Scotlandrecognises that “Every effort is being made to increase the value and income from leasesof many kinds, and from developments such as windfarms, mineral sites and telecommunicationmasts, for which the national forests can often provide a suitable location.”In this way the national forest lands make a considerable contribution to theExecutive’s targets for increasing the proportion of power generated fromrenewable sources.

All proposals are developedwith full public consultation, and detailed plans for careful forestrestructuring. The usual planning consents and Environmental Impact Assessmentsare required and environmental, economic and social issues are taken fully intoaccount.

Scottish ministers have takenthe view that, given the marked differences between Scottish and English law inthe relevant areas, a Scottish legal solution must be developed through the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Executive is currently examining the Westminster billto see what would be required to secure similar protection in Scotland.

VisitScotland’s promotion ofScotland in UK and overseas tourism markets uses the tremendous appealof Scottish food and drink as a vitally important part of its marketing message.An excellent example of this was the recent and very successful Scotland withCatalonia event in Barcelona. Scottish food and drink companies were integral to thisevent, as they were last year during the similar Scotland in Sweden eventin Stockholm.

VisitScotland is committed toraising the quality of experience our visitors receive throughout their time inScotland. The quality of food and drink is a major and growing part of that experience.That is why VisitScotland remains committed to the success of its Food Quality Assurancescheme, which until now has been run on its behalf by Taste of Scotland. VisitScotlandare now reviewing the situation in the light of the position in which that companyfinds itself.

In view of the progress madein recent negotiations between Caledonian MacBrayne and the unions representingits workforce, I do not envisage tourists or local residents being stranded byindustrial action.

I am encouraged by therecent progress made by Caledonian MacBrayne and the trade unions representingits workforce. I trust that this will remove any threat of industrial action.

No. I trust that the recent progress in negotiations will remove any threat of industrial action.