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Three councils use ALEOs to provide care: Glasgow City Council, Aberdeen City Council and Scottish Borders Council. Has any work been done on the impact on those ALEOs? If local authorities no longer had a statutory duty to provide care, could they still have an ALEO that provided that service? What would be the impact?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Absolutely, but there could also be the argument that perhaps some of the benefits would be devolved benefits that would impact on your budget.

That is good to know.

My last question is about the national care service. You have said that we are in really difficult financial times just now, so is that an area that you are you perhaps looking at again? Is it the right time to introduce that extra layer? The committee hears a lot of evidence from people who say that it could add an extra layer of bureaucracy and that perhaps now is not the right time to do it. Is it something that you would consider delaying or something that you definitely want to push ahead with?

I guess that it is a case of little snippets here and there, as opposed to a big-bang approach of total change to the landscape, so to speak.

Deputy First Minister, I want to come back to investment zones. It sounds like you are not fundamentally against them but you need to see a lot more detail and description from the UK Government. Is that a fair analysis?

That is good to hear. There are a lot of similarities between investment zones and freeports, I imagine. Has the Scottish Government done much work on freeports and their costs, and on whether the model might lead to displacement or new growth?

My next question is about air passenger duty. That was an area that could potentially be devolved. Is it something that the Government is still looking at, or are you moving away from that now?

So there are still some issues that prevent it from being devolved—is that correct?