A letter from the Forum of Private Business in Scotland has been received and I have agreed to meet them.

The Scottish Biodiversity Forum's IACS Year Calendar 2003-04 was issued with Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) packs to all IACS producers in the spring of this year. The distribution of the IACS year calendars in the IACS packs was jointly authorised by Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department's agricultural staff, CAP Management and Countryside and Natural Heritage divisions. Following issue of the IACS Year Calendar 2002-03 last year, the Scottish Biodiversity Forum's Agriculture Working Group (AWG) invited NFUS Farming Leader recipients to provide feedback on the calendar, in particular whether one should be produced for 2003-04. Eighty-eight per cent of questionnaire respondents requested an IACS Year Calendar for 2003-04 and on the basis of that result, AWG members agreed that another calendar should be produced. It was clear from the responses that a majority of IACS producers considered the calendar to be valuable not only in biodiversity terms but also for highlighting key dates for events and grant and subsidy scheme deadlines. The IACS year calendars are not Scottish Executive publications but have been produced by the AWG. A wide range of organisations is represented on the AWG (now known as the Rural Land Use Working Group) and several have been directly involved in creating and contributing to the cost of the two calendars.The production and issue of IACS year calendars to almost 20,000 IACS producers in 2002 and 2003 is just one of several ways the AWG has gone about fulfilling its remit of raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity and encouraging its protection and enhancement. Such publications will contribute towards farmers' understanding of the natural environment and how important their role is maintaining biological diversity in the countryside. This is particularly worthwhile as farmers become involved in a more environment-focused CAP system, cross-compliance and other environmental issues. A copy of the IACS Year Calendar 2003-04 was sent to 19,725 IACS producers at an additional postage cost of £6,706.50. The total cost of producing 20,000 and distributing 19,725 IACS Year Calendars for 2003-04 was £16,819. As in the previous year, all these costs were met by the AWG.

We are discussing with the Presiding Officer how best to establish budgetary arrangements which both enable the investigation to be as thorough and effective as it needs to be and provide for proper financial accountability to the Parliament. In parallel, the Scottish Executive and the Parliament are discussing with Lord Fraser and the Auditor General for Scotland the plans for the conduct of the investigation, so that a budget can be set. Lord Fraser has suggested that his fee should be set according to the standard scale rates and has offered to cap the total payment. The cost of the Auditor General's inquiry is, as with all his inquiries, a matter for the Auditor General and Audit Scotland rather than the Scottish Executive.

The provision of bus and rail services is a matter for individual bus and rail operators and local transport authorities. The Executive provides substantial financial support to the bus industry to support the provision of services and is supporting the development of several infrastructure projects and enhancement schemes which will facilitate new passenger railway services. As outlined in A Partnership for a Better Scotland the Executive is committed to piloting better value bus services through a route development scheme to promote particular under-used routes. In addition the Executive will be looking to bidders to come forward with innovative proposals for new services during the franchise re-letting process for the Scottish passenger railway.

Over the next three years the Scottish Executive spending on public transport as a proportion of the total transport budget (excluding capital charges) is budgeted to be: 2003-04: 64.2%, 2004-05: 66.4%, 2005-06 69.2%. The budgets for 2006-07 and 2007-08 will be set in the next spending review, which will begin in the autumn of 2003. The information sought on transport budgets is available in the transport chapter of Building a Better Scotland, which can be found at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/government/babs-11.asp.

A Works Directive Periodic Indicative Notice, which advertised external cladding and windows packages for the new Parliament building, was published in the Official Journal of the European Community (OJEC) in February 1999.

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues affecting the Scotch whisky industry including duty rates, tax differentials and EU minimum rates.

The Scottish Executive and the industry have an on-going commitment to work together to secure the best conditions possible, at home or abroad, for the benefit of the industry, the jobs it supports and the wider economy of Scotland.

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues including regulations as they affect the Scotch whisky industry. The Executive works to support Scottish businesses where EU and UK policies have an effect on competitiveness, and seeks to ensure that the regulatory burden is kept to a sensible minimum.

The Scottish Executive has stated that the regulatory regimes introduced under the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 will be selective, proportionate and streamlined and SEPA will be required to recover the costs incurred by its new duties by means of charging schemes. Safeguards have been built into the Water Framework Directive and the Water Environment and Water Services Scotland (Act) 2003 to ensure that economic and social issues are taken into account alongside environmental factors in the river basin management planning process. Section 2(4)(a) of the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 requires Scottish ministers, SEPA, and responsible authorities to exercise their functions with regard to the social and economic impact of that exercise.The new regulatory regimes will be subject to full consultation and will be accompanied by a regulatory impact assessment. Representatives from the whisky industry will have the opportunity to take part in that consultation. Furthermore, the industry will continue to have opportunities to influence a wide range of Water Framework Directive implementation issues through the Water Framework Directive National Stakeholder Forum, on which whisky industry representatives will sit.The Scottish Executive has consulted widely on issues relating to implementing the water framework directive on a number of occasions. The whisky industry has responded to all consultations and representatives of the Malt Distillers Association and the Scotch Whisky Association attended a national Water Framework Directive conference in March. All responses to consultation, and future consultation are published on the Executive website, unless recipients request that their contribution is treated in confidence.