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The Scottish Executive and the industry have an on-going commitment to work together to secure the best conditions possible, at home or abroad, for the benefit of the industry, the jobs it supports and the wider economy of Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-927. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

The Scottish Executive has not met the Keepers of the Quaich and no such meetings are planned.

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues affecting the Scotch whisky industry including duty rates, tax differentials and EU minimum rates.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-928 on 14 July 2003. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

According to figures compiled by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), the number of people directly employed by the Scotch whisky industry in the UK over the last four years is 1999 - 11,178; 2000 - 11,091; 2001 - 10,691, and 2002 - 10,438. A recent study by DTZ Pieda, on behalf of the SWA, concluded that, in 2000, distillers spent £689.72 million with Scottish suppliers of goods and services. As a result, 40,810 jobs in Scotland were indirectly supported by Scotch whisky production. Nearly 65,000 jobs were supported across the UK as a whole.The most recent research in the area of Gross Domestic Product concluded that in 2000, £807 million of income (principally wages and salaries) was generated in Scotland by Scotch whisky production. £1,311 million of income was generated in the UK as a whole. The value of exports in each of the last four years was 1999 - £2,093.7 million; 2000 - £2,156.4 million; 2001 - £2,295.0 million, and 2002 - £2,285.0 million. No statistics are available about prospects over the next four years.

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues including regulations as they affect the Scotch whisky industry. The Executive works to support Scottish businesses where EU and UK policies have an effect on competitiveness, and seeks to ensure that the regulatory burden is kept to a sensible minimum.

The Scottish Executive has stated that the regulatory regimes introduced under the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 will be selective, proportionate and streamlined and SEPA will be required to recover the costs incurred by its new duties by means of charging schemes. Safeguards have been built into the Water Framework Directive and the Water Environment and Water Services Scotland (Act) 2003 to ensure that economic and social issues are taken into account alongside environmental factors in the river basin management planning process. Section 2(4)(a) of the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 requires Scottish ministers, SEPA, and responsible authorities to exercise their functions with regard to the social and economic impact of that exercise.The new regulatory regimes will be subject to full consultation and will be accompanied by a regulatory impact assessment. Representatives from the whisky industry will have the opportunity to take part in that consultation. Furthermore, the industry will continue to have opportunities to influence a wide range of Water Framework Directive implementation issues through the Water Framework Directive National Stakeholder Forum, on which whisky industry representatives will sit.The Scottish Executive has consulted widely on issues relating to implementing the water framework directive on a number of occasions. The whisky industry has responded to all consultations and representatives of the Malt Distillers Association and the Scotch Whisky Association attended a national Water Framework Directive conference in March. All responses to consultation, and future consultation are published on the Executive website, unless recipients request that their contribution is treated in confidence.

The Construction Managers for the Holyrood project, Bovis Lend Lease (Scotland) Ltd, have informed the Project Team that all the documents listed in the answer to parliamentary question S1W-21898 on 24 January 2002, were received from Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) Ltd, during the prequalification process for the bid list for the MSP Building Cladding package. That process took place in May 2000.Bovis Lend Lease (Scotland) Ltd have also advised that, as Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) Ltd had only been operating in the UK for a short period of time, no published credit references were available.

The Scottish Executive will open consultation on our proposals for a strategic transport authority during the summer.