My statement on 26 January identified two areas affecting the water industry where the Executive intends to consult.

The first is competition in the industry and how to ensure that it benefits customers, while public health, environmental and social objectives continue to be met. I plan to publish a consultation document on this in April.

The second is the standards that the water authorities should meet during the period to be covered by the next strategic charges round to be carried out by the Water Industry Commissioner. These will eventually be published in the next Quality and Standards Paper. Prior to that the Executive will consult on them in draft form in the autumn.(In addition, I said in my statement that the Executive is considering whether it can improve on the protection from the full impact of water and sewerage charges already provided to the less well off by the current arrangement linking charges to Council Tax banding. We plan to consult on this during the course of the summer.)

Access to international blue whiting fisheries is established following negotiations between the EU and other coastal states, most notably Norway under the aegis of the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC). Recent years have seen a considerable and unsustainable increase in effort on this fishery by non-EU countries, with the EC maintaining conservation measures to limit access.

It would be wrong to reward such unsustainable "olympic" fishing by establishing a related track record.

In view of this situation, at the December Fisheries Council, Ministers reserved their position on blue whiting, stating in the Council minutes "the Council and Commission will revert to this issue, as appropriate, if negotiations in NEAFC in early 2000 do not result in efficient regulatory measures for the fishing of blue whiting in the Regulatory Area".Scottish Executive officials have been fully involved in formulating the current EU negotiating position, and the EU team is well aware of the importance to the Scottish pelagic fleet of continued access to this fishery.

Public/private partnership deals undertaken by the water authorities do not generate income for them but result in the authorities paying a tariff to the private consortia concerned for providing value for money services. The following tables show annually for each water authority, charges revenue, new borrowing and EU structural grants.

£ million

North of Scotland Water Authority	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-00
Charges revenue	120.2	128.0	137.8	153.0
New borrowing	65.9	48.7	46.5	46.0*
EU Grants	0.031	0.022	0.739	0.469

East of Scotland Water Authority	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-00
Charges revenue	162.0	173.2	194.0	236.5
New borrowing	70.0	55.9	54.7	80.5*
EU Grants	nil	nil	nil	nil

West of Scotland Water Authority	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-00
Charges revenue	243.1	247.4	266.0	280.0
New borrowing	83.9	62.5	71.3	95.4*
EU Grants	0.008	0.057	0.113	0.015

*New borrowings (EFLs) for the current year were adjusted at water authorities' request to accommodate timing changes in their capital investment programmes. In NoSWA's case £5 million was deferred to 2000-01 and for ESWA and WoSWA £10 million each was brought forward from 2000-01 into the current year. Indicative EFLs for 2000-01 were adjusted accordingly to £55 million, £66 million and £80.9 million for NoSWA, ESWA and WoSWA respectively.

The exact remuneration packages for the Chief Executives will be a matter for negotiation between the Board of each authority and the successful candidates. The final packages agreed will be subject to Ministerial approval; I have indicated to the authorities that a basic salary of a little above £100,000, with fewer benefits than at present, may be considered as the basis for negotiations with their preferred candidates.

I received the Commissioner's advice on strategic charge levels for the period 2000-02 on 22 December, and I announced my decision to Parliament on 26 January.

You will be aware that the European Commission has proposed a compulsory system of beef labelling that is projected to be in place on 1 September, 2000. The Scottish Executive's objective is to seek exemption from these compulsory regulations for beef covered by either a Protected Geographical Indication ("Scotch" beef) or a Protected Denomination of Origin ("Orkney" beef) as described by EC regulation 2081/92. This objective is fully reflected in the UK position in negotiations, but I was able to make this point at the Agriculture Council in December and also more recently, my officials have in Council working groups convened on 11, 12 and 27 January.

Special deprivation payments have been targeted at those councils experiencing higher levels of deprivation, as measured by above average Income Support recipients as a proportion of their total populations. Aberdeen City is not amongst these councils.The payments do not pre-judge the outcome of the review of deprivation indicators within the distribution system that we are undertaking this year with COSLA.

In my statement on 26 January, I announced the results of the strategic review of water charges for the period April 2000 to March 2002. I also announced that I have asked my officials to consider whether we can improve on the protection already given to many low-income households through the linkage between water charges and Council Tax banding.

No.

Grampian Television makes a valuable contribution to the culture of Scotland, particularly of the North of Scotland. Its provision is required to comply with the licence conditions of the Independent Television Commission.