Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive has provided no direct financial assistance to low cost carriers to fly within or to and from Scotland. The Scottish Executive does, however, support Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd, which has provided discounted airport charges to operators of new services for the first three years of operation.

Policy on employment issues is a reserved matter.The Scottish Executive's Programme for Government places a high priority on employability, the relevance of education and training provision to employer needs, and matching skills to the employment market. A key role of the new Scottish Labour Market Intelligence Unit will be to improve the availability, nationally and locally, of information about current and future demand.

Pursuant to my previous answer, invitations to tender were issued to the following organisations:

• American Express
• Bell Travel
• Carlson Wagonlit
• Gray Dawes
• Hogg Robinson Travel
• Travel Management Group plc

The contract was awarded to Carlson Wagonlit as it offered best overall value for money in terms of meeting the specified requirement and cost. The contract was awarded in June 2000 for a five-year period, with the option to extend for a further two years if required.

The Scottish Executive established a Brussels-based EU Office in July 1999. This office is located in Scotland House, which also houses a number of other Scottish organisations.The purpose of the office is to assist the Scottish Executive in carrying out its EU-related business. It carries out the following roles:

• Operational support to the Scottish Executive
• Information gathering
• Assisting in influencing EU policy
• Raising Scotland's profile in the EU

There are currently six permanent members of staff based in this office who are employed by the Scottish Executive. The number of staff in each Scottish Executive payband and their areas of responsibility are outlined below:

Scottish Executive Pay Band	Number of staff	Area of responsibility
Senior Civil Service	1	Head of OfficeLiaison with other Regions and the European ParliamentInstitutional issues
Band C	1	Agriculture, Fisheries, Public Health
Band B	2	Environment, Transport, Energy, Justice and Home Affairs, Regional Policy, Education & Training, Social Policy, Industry, Culture
Band A	2	Administrative support

Decisions on cross-Forth transport matters need to be taken within the context of the Forth Transport Infrastructure Partnership (comprising the Executive, the Forth Road Bridge Joint Board and Edinburgh, Fife and West Lothian Councils) and in future will be a matter for a new Forth Road Bridge Joint Board.

Scotland House accommodates several Scottish organisations including the Scottish Executive EU Office. The Scottish Executive EU Office is fully responsible to the Scottish Executive and acts in accordance with Scottish Ministers' instructions. The Scottish Executive EU Office has had occasional contact with the British Embassy in Brussels, which is responsible for the UK's relations with Belgium. The Scottish Executive EU Office works closely with the UK Permanent Representation to the European Union (UKRep). UKRep involves the Scottish Executive EU Office in EU decision making in accordance with the devolution settlement.

Over the last three years there were 101 personal injury accidents on the M74's four-lane section between Junction 6 and Junction 12. Of these, 69 did not involve serious injuries or fatalities and 32 involved serious injuries or fatalities.

Over the last three years there were 244 personal injury accidents on the six-lane section of the M74 from Junction 1 to Junction 6 and Junction 12 to the Border. Of these, 184 did not involve serious injuries or fatalities and 60 involved serious injuries or fatalities.

This information is not held centrally.

All payments made to the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) have fallen under section 13 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1996.

The Scottish Executive is currently considering information supplied by the SQA on additional expenditure incurred this financial year and projected additional expenditure for financial year 2001-02. On the basis of this information, the Executive will discuss with the SQA a recovery plan which will be used to set the levels of Executive funding.

I have given a commitment to fund the difference between the Scottish Qualifications Authority's income and expenditure, during the current financial year and financial year 2001-02, within limits to be agreed with the Executive.

The Scottish Executive is currently considering information supplied by the SQA on additional expenditure incurred this financial year and projected additional expenditure for financial year 2001-02. On the basis of this information, we will discuss with the SQA a recovery plan which will be used to set the level of Executive funding.