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The Scottish Governmenthas engaged consultants to carry out a study of Road Equivalent Tariff (RET). Oneof the consultants’ first tasks will be to develop proposals on the implementationof a pilot RET project in the Western Isles, as promised in our manifesto. As indicatedin the reply to question S3W-3672 answered on 13 September 2007, the consultantshave been asked to liaise with a range of stakeholders, including local authoritiesand regional transport partnerships, as they carry out their work. When appropriate,the Scottish Government will be involved in these discussions. It is anticipatedthat the consultants will be contacting these stakeholders shortly with the intentionof a first meeting during October.

Scotland has a successful tourism industry withthe potential to grow significantly, contributing to our target of deliveringstrong and sustainable growth.

The ScottishGovernment and our agencies are committed to working with the tourism industryto achieve our shared ambition to increase Scotland’s tourism revenues by 50% in the decade to 2015. The enterprisenetworks have identified tourism as one of Scotland’s priority sectors. They support tourism businesses in a variety ofways, including assisting in product development, investment in infrastructure,building partnership and networking opportunities and using skills developmentto improve management, leadership and customer service. These are all aimed athelping the tourism sector to grow by increasing capacity and become moreefficient and effective.

The reforms tothe enterprise networks and VisitScotland which we announced on 26 September 2007are designed to simplify and strengthen the ways in which they will work withtourism businesses identified as having the potential to contribute to ourtourism growth ambition.

As we set out in ourProgramme for Government Principles and Priorities document, Scotland needs a healthy science and research base, as our futureeconomy and society will be increasingly dependent on science and technology andscience contributes to all of our wider objectives. We will therefore be givingpriority to developing our plans for science and innovation strategy and developinga vision for supporting science to benefit the economy, our people and our qualityof life. We published on the Scottish Government website in August a report on aconsultation exercise on Scotland’s science and innovation strategy conducted betweenOctober 2006 and January 2007. We now intend to build on that work to develop areplacement for the science strategy published in 2001. Plans for this work, includingproposals on scope, timing and stakeholder engagement, are currently being drawnup for ministers to consider and no target date has yet been set for publication.However, given the degree of preparatory work necessary, including further consultationwith stakeholders, the wide ranging nature of science strategy and the interactionwith other strategic work, we would expect this to be produced during 2008. In additionto this overall strategy, we are currently consulting on a revised strategy forhealth research funded through the Chief Scientist Office of the Health Directorates,with the aim of publishing a new strategy in 2008 and we have also recently initiateda scoping exercise in the area of rural, environmental and marine policy that willhelp us to publish a framework for the next research strategy in this area by thesummer of 2008. The Chief Scientific Adviser in the Scottish Government, ProfessorAnne Glover, is ensuring we adopt a co-ordinated approach to science policy andstrategy across the Scottish Government.

Our approach to supportingscience will be set out in our overall strategy and this will need to address arange of issues. These will include maintaining an internationally competitive sciencebase and ensuring that funding for science is aligned and  co-ordinated; steppingup our international connections on science to attract more large scale investment,and ensuring that discoveries and innovations from our science base are harnessedeffectively; ensuring that our education system produces a good flow of scientistsand those with science skills, to meet the needs of all sectors of our economy;promoting and engaging public interest in science and in science careers, and ensuringthat science is used effectively by Government to support all aspects policy development.

In the meantime, weshall continue to support science through a wide range of programmes, includingfunding of research and its exploitation in universities, research institutes, theNHS, and business – planned public investment in which will amount to over £450million in 2007-08. Science education will benefit from our science and societyprogramme and science is being considered early in the on-going review of curriculummaterials.

The London 2012Olympic and Paralympic Games will provide Scotland with an additional opportunity to showcase its tourism product to aglobal market. VisitScotland is represented on the Scottish steering groupwhich has been set up to ensure that Scotland gets maximum benefit from the games.

My officials holdregular meetings with VisitScotland about our ambition for the long-termdevelopment of Scotland’s tourism sector, including the opportunitiesrepresented by the 2012 London Olympic Game. Scotland intends to maximise the potential tourism benefits from the 2012 LondonOlympic Games. Our strategy is to work closely with the UK Government tomaximise the tourism benefits to Scotland from theGames, and Scottish representatives meet regularly with others from the rest of the UK on a number of working groups relating tothe games, including one on tourism.

Our tourismstrategy is based on an ambition to grow tourism revenues by 50% in the decadeto 2015. We will use every opportunity, including the year of Homecomingproject in 2009, the 2012 London Olympic Games, and the Ryder Cup in 2014, toattain that ambition. There is a real opportunity for Scotland’s appeal as atourism destination to be used to attract visitors to the UK attending the 2012London Olympic Games to extend their stay by visiting Scotland.

Scottishministers are in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues,including the impact of the London2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games on Scotland.

There is regulardialogue between the Scottish Government and the UK Government’s Department ofEnvironment, Food and Rural Affairs in relation to marine issues. The ScottishGovernment are considering the Departmentfor Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ proposals for a UK Marine Bill and officials areactively discussing the issues,  including the potential for furtherdevolution.

I previouslyindicated to the Parliament my support for the Advisory Group on Marine andCoastal Strategy recommendation on extending the Parliament’s powers over themarine environment. Additionally, Choosing Scotland’s Future – A NationalConversation, published in August, notes that acquisition by the Scottish Parliament of responsibility for planning and nature conservation in the marinearea between 12 to 200 nautical miles would make possible a coherent approachto the management of the seas around Scotland.

I am currentlyconsidering the Departmentfor Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) proposals for a UK Marine Bill, and theimplications for Scotland. Officials are also actively discussing the proposalswith Defra, including thepotential for further devolution of powers in the marine environment and theterms on which that could be achieved.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-3672 on 13 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.