The Executive is pleased to support the costs of preparation of the proposed Highland bid for designation as European Capital of Culture 2008. We are making available £50,000 towards those costs in both this and the next financial year. This is in addition to support being given by VisitScotland and the Scottish Arts Council. My officials also stand ready in the event that the bid partners wish to discuss the bid during its preparation stages.

In addition to the actions set out in the Biodiversity Species Action Plan for capercaillie, the Scottish Executive, Scottish Natural Heritage, Forestry Commission, Caledonian Partnership, RSPB and others have developed a bid for funding from the EU LIFE Nature programme directed at enhancing capercaillie populations within and adjacent to capercaillie Special Protection Areas (SPAs). It is also likely that there will be a large scale demonstration project targeted at undesignated sites.

I also announced in September the provision of £700,000 for the removal and marking of deer fences in Scotland through a scheme being administered by the Forestry Commission. An additional two capercaillie SPAs have also been submitted to the European Commission for classification.

Additionally, a Scottish Statutory Instrument is currently before the Scottish Parliament which will include the capercaillie on Schedule 1, Part 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This will provide capercaillie with greater protection by making it illegal to hunt the species, and will make offences punishable by increased penalties.

The three-year programme of motorway and trunk road improvements, which I announced on 27 March, does not include any major schemes between Loch Lomond and Inverness. However, minor maintenance and improvement schemes are being progressed, including works on new lay-bys at Abriachan and Temple Pier and a new footway between Invermoriston and Dalcataig Junction. The roads programme is under regular review and we will consider the case for further improvements, including the schemes being promoted by the Highland Council, in the context of competing priorities across the whole of the network.

The three-year programme of improvements to the motorway and trunk road network, which I announced on 27 March, included one major scheme on the A82. This project will improve capacity at the A82/A814 Dumbuck Junction, Dumbarton and allow further safety improvements at Milton Village. Preliminary work on the scheme will start in 2002-03. In addition, there are a range of routine and minor maintenance schemes in progress on the route.

We are taking forward the recommendation to create an ombudsman to investigate complaints against the enterprise networks as part of our wider exercise to establish modern arrangements for public sector ombudsmen in Scotland. In July we published a paper, A Modern Complaints System, which set out detailed proposals, including the proposal that the External Complaints Adjudicators of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise would be wound-up and that the Enterprise Networks would fall within the remit of the proposed Scottish Public Sector Ombudsman. The main function of the new ombudsman will be to investigate claims of injustice resulting from maladministration.

In his statement to Parliament last month the First Minister confirmed our intention to introduce the Scottish Public Sector Ombudsman Bill later this year.

I met representatives of the Highland Council, including the Lochaber Area Convener, when I visited the area in August. We discussed a range of transport issues, including the A82 trunk road, and the convener has since written to the department setting out his points in detail. I have no further plans to meet the council on this issue in the near future.

No final decisions on the detail of the Renewables Obligation (Scotland) have yet been taken. A statutory consultation exercise has just ended, and as part of this, my officials are meeting with representatives from British Alcan to discuss that company's views about support for renewable energy.

The Scottish Executive will bring forward detailed proposals of the categories of beneficiaries and distribution arrangements when the Scottish Transport Group Dissolution Order is brought forward for the approval of the Scottish Parliament in the autumn. Subject to the Scottish Parliament's approval the Executive expects to be in a position to progress the making of ex-gratia payments to all eligible beneficiaries during the course of this financial year.

The information requested cannot be broken down by local authority area. Local authorities advise that there are about 23,000 council houses in Scotland with no form of central heating. Scottish Homes figures show that there are about 6,000 housing association properties without central heating. We estimate that there are 40,000 over 60s households in the private sector across Scotland without heating or with a heating system which is broken down and beyond repair. Householders in the private sector can choose from a range of gas, electric, oil or solid fuel systems, subject to constraints of cost and practicability. Tenants in the social rented sector have the same choice where it is reasonable and practicable for the landlord to do so. The programme will be widened in 2004 so that 20,000 local authority dwellings can be upgraded from partial central heating systems to whole-house systems. The Executive is investing £26 million in 2001-02, £30 million in 2002-03 and £40 million in 2003-04. Resources will also come from the investment produced by community ownership and from the energy companies under their Energy Efficiency Commitment.

The estimated sum receivable in respect of the Scottish Transport Group pension schemes surplus is noted in the group's Report and Accounts which are presented annually, formerly to the UK Parliament and now to the Scottish Parliament.