To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s regulatory activity is directed at farming. It is estimated thatbetween 3% and 4% of SEPA’s charging income, which recovers the costs of SEPA’sregulatory activities, comes from the farming and crofting sectors, and that between2% and 3% of SEPA’s staff routinely deal with businesses in these sectors.In addition to itsregulatory activity involving farmers and crofters, SEPA staff spend a substantialamount of time on regulatory activity involving other businesses based in ruralScotland and on more general environmental activitiessuch as flood warning, flood risk and flood advisory work which benefits the environmentand those living and working in rural communities.