The Inverness Southern Distributor Road is a local road and the responsibility of Highland Council.

The Scottish Executive has no plans at present to review the trunk road network.

The possibility of investment on the Inverness Southern Distributor Road, as a regionally significant link, is a matter for Highland Council to discuss with HITRANS in the context of the regional transport strategy.

The Scottish Executive support HITRANS through a capital allocation of £3.53 million in the current financial year (2006-07).

The Minister for Transport isresponsible for approving Transport Scotland’s annual business performance targets and measures aspart of the Transport Scotland Annual Business Plan. A copy of the Annual Business Plan is availableon Transport Scotland’s website at:

www.transportscotland.gov.uk.

The Transport Scotland BusinessPlan 2006-07, published on 19 April 2006, indicates in Annex E, the details of spending programmesfor 2006-07 and 2007-08 financial years.

Spending plans for future years2008-09 and 2009-10 will be determined at the next comprehensive spending review(SR07) and therefore it would be too early to anticipate the outcome of this process.

Transport Scotland is anexecutive agency of the Scottish Executive, and as such, through its Chief Executive,is directly accountable to Scottish ministers.

Transport Scotland’s FrameworkDocument which was approved by the Minister for Transport is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 38523). It sets out how thisaccountability operates in full detail.

Transport Scotland’s CorporatePlan and Annual Business Plan are available on Transport Scotland’s websiteat www.transportscotland.gov.uk.

There were 110 Scottish Executivestaff working for 178,860 hours on Transport Scotland functions in the year beforeit opened for business in January 2006. There are currently 287 permanent postswithin the agency. Staffing levels have increased because Transport Scotland is dischargingthe new rail responsibilities devolved to Scottish ministers in 2005, dealing withrail delivery, regulation and freight. It is overseeing seven major new public transportprojects. It is also managing the National Concessionary Travel Schemes. Approximately40 staff moved from Strathclyde Partnership for Transport to Transport Scotland to dealwith the implementation of the concessionary fares schemes and SQUIRE Inspection.

As part of the last spendingreview (SR04) settlement, funding was allocated to Transport Portfolio to take forwardour Partnership Commitment to bring forward proposals for a Strategic TransportAuthority, as an agency within the Executive directly accountable to ministers.

Funding of £1.2 million - £2.8million - £3.3 million for years 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 was ring-fenced atSR04 to take forward the establishment of Transport Scotland the new Executive Agency.

Transport Scotland is stillin its infancy with the building fit-out and relocation of staff being approachedin two phases. This started in May 2006, but the final move of staff has only justbeen undertaken.

The Transport Scotland 2006-07Annual Report will reflect the total actual expenditure of one-off costs relatedto the set-up and establishment of Transport Scotland.

Transport Scotland staffare Scottish Executive staff. The senior management of Transport Scotland meetsfrequently with other Scottish Executive colleagues. As well as ad hoc meetingsbetween officials, there is also Transport Scotland representation at a widerange of meetings.

I referthe member to the answer to question S2W-28451on 6 October 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliaments website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Transport Scotland startedwork as an executive agency in January 2006. The agency is responsible for helpingto deliver the Executive’s £3 billion capital road and rail investment programmeover the next decade, overseeing the safe and efficient running of Scotland’s trunkroads and rail networks and establishing and running a national scheme for concessionarytravel in Scotland.

The Scottish Executive’s TransportGroup remains responsible for:

Coordinatingthe National Transport Strategy for Scotland;

Liaisonwith regional transport partnerships, including monitoring of funding;

Sustainabletransport, road safety and accessibility;

Localroads policy and casework;

Aviation,bus, freight and taxi policy, and

Ferries,ports and harbours.

Further information on the functionsof Transport Scotland can be accessed on its website at: http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/index.aspx?pageID=1.

I referthe member to the answer to question S2W-28446on 6 October 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliaments website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Information on Transport Scotland canbe found on its website at:

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/index.aspx?pageID=1.