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It might surprise some members, but much of the south of Scotland now has lower economic output per head than comparable areas in the Highlands and Islands.
That certainly represents a reduction in scrutiny compared with the use of affirmative procedure, but we believe that the use of negative procedure is appropriate in relation to the powers as they stand.
We think that something like 720,000 titles in those research areas are not yet on the land register. Compared with some voluntary registrations, it would be quite easy and cheap to work on getting those titles into the register.
In remote rural Scotland, which is defined as being more than half an hour’s drive from any settlement with a population of more than 10,000—which is more or less everywhere in the Highlands except for the area around Inverness—there is a presumption in favour of development.
At the minute, we are going through the refinancing of some of our private placement loans that are underlying lending. The response to that has been exceptional, recognising that Scotland has a huge opportunity in the markets that are evolving in things such as the renewables sector and that that investment needs to be made but, over time, you will get a r...
During that time, there was an attempt to achieve consensus, whenever possible, and that was achieved on the vast majority of issues, I think, with the exception of appeals. There was then a discussion about how the SQA could improve on that process for next year.
For example, the new public sector prison at Low Moss, which is due to open in 2012, will include in its visit facility an internal children''s play area and an area outwith the confines of the main visit area to accommodate family visits.
Thirdly, there is increasing concern about subject choice and whether some pupils have access to fewer examination courses compared with the rest of their peers.