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The analysis of the draft budget can be discussed again on 26 September. As the Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform will not come to talk about the budget until our external meeting in November, we still have a bit of time.Before we begin, I ask Arthur Midwinter to say something about an error that he has found in the draft budget document.
I note from Malcolm Chisholm's response of 26 January to a question from Elaine Smith that the Executive will have spent around £954,000 over five years on the promotion of breastfeeding—it proposes to spend £230,000 this year.
As a result, we focused on putting things right. Indeed, that was the best that we could do for 2003-04, which was the year that lay immediately ahead of us.
Those communities have received bad news, but, in the past year, Shetland and elsewhere have been given the good news that, after decades of decline, the population of the Highlands and Islands is increasing.
Can you go on to the question about a new owner? The agreement will be between the local authority and the ratepayer, so if a property passes to a new owner, the new owner will have to agree to receive their bill electronically.
Is that fair enough?Members indicated agreement. New paragraph 3A(8) of schedule 2 to the 1997 act restricts the period of the scheme to five years and new paragraph 3A(9) gives the Scottish ministers a power to extend or further extend the life of the new scheme beyond five y...
However, those who would like to become involved in that appear to have no confidence in the system that would enable them so to do.Can the minister explain why there seems to be little demand to use the new system? What action will the minister take to make the new system more acceptable to those who wish to let lan...