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Freedom of Informationresponses will be published as soon as possible. Priority has been given toanswering parliamentary questions and to supporting relevant appearances at theLocal Government and Communities Committee.

Mr Salmond undertook thismeeting in his capacity as constituencymember for Gordon. It is not for the Scottish Government to comment on ministers’constituency business.

However, Mr Salmond has madeclear in earlier statements that the Trump Organization had called hisconstituency office on 3 December 2007 to request a meeting, which was held inAberdeen for convenience, as he was already due to be travelling to Aberdeen toconduct government business with his special adviser and prepare for governmentbusiness in Aberdeen the next day.

I informed Mr Salmond afterI had made the decision to call in the planning application.

No.

No such discussions tookplace.

I refer the member to the answerto question S3W-7663 on 20 December 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can befound at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Chief Planner regularlyreceives telephone calls from MSPs about planning matters. Information aboutthe number of calls is not held by the Scottish Government because a formal recordis not routinely produced for every call received, as many involve simply theprovision of factual information to MSPs about planning processes. The ChiefPlanner has given information to the Local Government and Communities Committeeon a range of contacts he has had with MSPs. The official report is availableon the Parliament’s website at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/lgc/or-08/lg08-0102.htm#Col425.

The Chief Planner metrepresentatives of the Trump Organization on 4 December 2007.At the close of the meeting the Chief Planner telephoned Mr Salmond, in hiscapacity as MSP for Gordon, as a courtesy to say the meeting had taken placeand said that all discussion of potential ministerial action would be passed tome in line with proper procedure. The First Minister was not party to thedecision to call in the application.

The Permanent Secretary has made clear, as part of his consideration of the behaviour of civil servants,that he received an assurance from the Chief Planner that he has, at no time, been instructed by any party toact improperly and that he feels he has applied the same rigour in thisparticular case, in terms of following due process and having regard to the expectedstandards of conduct, as he would do in any other planning case.

Consequently, there would beno reason for the Permanent Secretary to consider the behaviour of any ministerin this matter, even if it were not the case that the terms of the Ministerial Codemake clear that the Permanent Secretary has no role in making judgements aboutthe behaviour of ministers in relation to the code.

Planning DecisionsDivision’s primary purpose is to consider planning applications and otherplanning cases notified or referred to Scottish ministers, advising ministers asappropriate. It is the role of the Head of Planning Decisions Division to leadand oversee the work of the whole division. As such in relation to the calledin planning application for the Menie Estate, he is responsible for the division’swork in considering the application and advising ministers.