Chamber and committees

Under section 3 of the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland has a function to advise ministers on the standard of service provided by Scottish Water. Any such advice would then allow Scottish ministers to take appropriate action. Furthermore, under section 29F of the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland may revise the maximum amount of charges that Scottish Water can levy to such extent as it thinks fit.

Eco Schools Scotland have a secondary schools development officer who is looking at ways in which the Eco Schools programme could be better tailored to staff and pupils in the secondary sector. A module on international issues, comprising themes of particular interest to secondary school pupils, is also being developed for inclusion in the programme.

The emerging learning outcomes of Curriculum for Excellence will ensure that sustainable development is integrated into all areas of the curriculum. This will help support young people''s learning about the natural world and the need for sustainable lifestyles.

A biodiversity module was added to the Eco Schools Scotland programme in 2005. Eco Schools Scotland, in conjunction with Scottish Natural Heritage, is currently undertaking research into schools'' uptake of the module.

In addition to the fares collected by train operators, the Scottish Government currently subsidise the rail network and services in Scotland by over £650 million per annum. This means that individual passenger journeys are already subsidised: we work hard to ensure that the level of subsidy, when compared to the fares revenue, strikes an appropriate balance of contribution between passenger and taxpayer.

Trips made by rail, which would otherwise have to be made by road, reduce the number of car or bus journeys on the road and the greenhouse gas emissions per passenger mile are much lower for rail transport than for transport by road.

The card already exists in the form of the National Entitlement Card, although this does not preclude transport operators choosing to develop their own cards for this purpose.

The new breed of smartcard enabled Electronic Ticket Machines “ capable of reading such cards - are being progressively rolled out across the entire Scottish bus fleet of over 7,000 buses and this programme should be largely complete by the end of 2008-09.

The third component of the infrastructure “ the back office to administer transactions, is again largely complete.

The Scottish Government intends to develop a framework for transport operators and local authorities to follow for Integrated Ticketing, and it is expected that this will go to stakeholder consultation in the next few weeks.

None.

One of my first decisions when I became Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment was to announce that the level of Voluntary Modulation for the new Scotland Rural Development Programme 2007-13 would be 5% in 2007, 8% in 2008, 8.5% in 2009 and 9% in each year from 2010-12 inclusive. These are the Voluntary Modulation rates which I believe will deliver a full programme, balancing social, economic and environmental benefits.

The relevant EC Regulations provide that once rates have been formally notified, they must be fixed for the full programming period and cannot be changed. It is, however, possible that these Regulations may change following the Health Check of the Common Agricultural Policy, in which case we may review the situation in the light of the then current circumstances.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) health check should not affect the overall funding allocated to CAP as this has been agreed as part of the EU Budget for 2007-13. It may, however, have implications for the distribution of funding. The Scottish Government will be seeking to achieve a good outcome for Scotland from the health check negotiations.

We have no current plans to do so.

The Life Begins programmewill help to identify people at higher risk of disease so that they can be targetedto reduce this risk. This will include help with making lifestyle changes and medicalinterventions to reduce risks and treat any newly detected disease. This would includethe treatment of type 2 diabetes.