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The Scottish Government has provided guidance within Included, Engaged and Involved Part 1: attendance in Scottish schools which recognises that in some circumstances parents may condone absence due to difficulties in school. Guidance encourages early contact with parents through home-link workers or family support staff to build relationships and restore trust. Guidance also indicates that flexible arrangements to secure continued education should be a priority. Included, Engaged and Involved is available from http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/12/05100056/0.

Supporting Children’s Learning, the code of practice for additional support for learning, provides clear guidance that parents should have access to free independent mediation services, and/or dispute resolution services, to resolve disagreements relating to provision for additional support needs.

We are working with retailers to reduce the number of single-use carrier bags generally. I met retailers on 15 May to discuss this matter and it was agreed a working group should be established. This working group has its first meeting on 19 June and will discuss a variety of issues including public information campaigns on bags. We await with interest the views of the working group on the issue of biodegradable and compostable bags. This is not a straightforward issue and there is some evidence to suggest that biodegradable bags going to landfill can generate methane, a greenhouse gas and that they can also contaminate the recycling stream for conventional plastic bags.

In respect of excess packaging use, none; technical standards of this nature are reserved.

In respect of packaging waste, The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007 obligate medium and large companies, including retailers, to recycle and recover packaging waste proportionate to the amounts of packaging that they use. Failure to do so is an offence. The regulations are enforced by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Although concerned with packaging waste the regulations nevertheless act as an incentive on businesses to curb their packaging use. That is, the less packaging a company uses the less its associated recycling and recovery costs will be.

The Scottish Government is in favour of reducing the unnecessary use of carrier bags but our preference at this stage is not in favour of an outright ban of products. In any event, an outright ban on a product might run contrary to Scotland’s EU obligations.

From 2000 to 2006, funding for diversification was provided by the Agricultural and Farm Business Development Schemes (ABDS/FBDS). The information you have requested is not held or readily available specifically for the Kilmarnock and Loudoun area, but a total of 39 FBDS projects were approved in the East Ayrshire local authority area during that period. This resulted in funding of £625,764 being awarded, levering total eligible investment of £1.655million. Across Scotland as a whole, 1,150 projects were approved, with funding awarded of £21.95 million.

The following is the original answer (published on 11 June 2008); see below.

From 2000 to 2006, funding for diversification was provided by the Agricultural and Farm Business Development Schemes (ABDS/FBDS). The information you have requested is not held or readily available specifically for the Kilmarnock and Louden area, but a total of 27 projects were approved in the North Ayrshire local authority area during that period, resulting in funding of £487,877 being awarded. Across Scotland as a whole, 1,150 projects were approved, with funding awarded of £21.95 million.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with retailers and others to reduce the number of single use carrier bags. To that end, I have established a working group with retailers to consider various options to cut bag use on a voluntary basis. If voluntary measures should not work, the Scottish Government would consider legislation to reduce bag use.

As part of its “Leading by Example” programme the Scottish Government is looking to all parts of the public sector to play an exemplary role in pioneering new greener behaviour, including the generation of renewable energy.

The Scottish Futures Trust will introduce innovative and more efficient ways of delivering and funding public infrastructure, and will encourage specifications which ensure that new public buildings are also green public buildings.

Changes to the Energy Standards of Scottish Building Regulations and SPP6: Planning Guidance encourage the use of renewable energy technologies in new public buildings to meet improved carbon emissions levels.

We are also promoting uptake by the public sector under the UK Government’s Low Carbon Buildings Programme which complements the increased funding under our own renewables grants programme for community projects.

We are introducing dedicated schools development officers to support the deployment of renewable technologies in Scotland’s schools.

We have also recently widened the Central Energy Efficiency Fund to allow public bodies to invest in renewables as well as energy efficiency.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13639 on 9 June 2008. 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/wa.search.

Cross-border rail services are the responsibility of the Department for Transport. It is already in the commercial interests of the train operating companies to maximise revenue and, accordingly, we have no plans to seek a reduction in the costs of tickets on cross-border services operating below capacity.

The importance of the whisky/spirits industry to the Scottish and UK economies should not be underestimated. Scottish Government ministers share the concerns of the spirits industry and have written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer condemning the recent changes in alcohol duty as not only damaging to Scotland and the UK economy but also a potential blow to international competitiveness of the industry at a time when it has been investing significantly to meet global demand. This is particularly the case with the Scotch whisky industry and the premium products it makes.