Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-9435 on 29 February 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.

Grant funding totalling £215,000 has been made available over the two years of 2006-07 and 2007-08 to The League for the Exchange of Commonwealth Teachers (LECT) to provide continuous professional development (CPD) opportunities for primary and secondary school teachers, through various exchange programmes and study visits. In addition, Learning and Teaching Scotland grant funded LECT £70,000 in 2006-07 to support educational activity in Malawi.

A Curriculum for Excellence provides the opportunity for an engaging, exciting and relevant education for every child and young person which helps to develop them as successful learners, effective contributors, responsible citizens and confident individuals. Teacher exchanges and study visits have a positive impact on learning and teaching in schools and provides an opportunity for teachers to reflect on their practice. This will also contribute to the National Outcome in the concordat between the Scottish Government and COSLA, that all young people are successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens.

I met with Scottish Power on 17 December 2007. A range of issues were discussed including the impact of high fuel prices and the initiatives Scottish Power is undertaking to mitigate their effects on vulnerable households, and its policies for back-charging customers with prepayment meters.

Special advisers contacted the communications officer for Mr Macdonald''s company on 27 January 2008 as a courtesy to make him aware of a statement made in response to newspaper articles.

I contacted the Chief Executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency on 7 December 2007 to ascertain if there were any misunderstandings or matters of process within SEPA that were unnecessarily holding up proper consideration of the planning applications. No officials or special advisers were present during these discussions or during SEPA''s Chief Executive''s return phone call to me on the same day during which he updated me in the light of his own inquiries into the matter.

Neither the Chief Planner nor any Scottish Government official has met Mr Donald Macdonald or his representatives to discuss the proposed development in Aviemore.

My discussions with the Chief Executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency on 7 December 2007 in relation to the Aviemore planning applications were undertaken in the normal conduct of my duties. Nobody was present or listened in to these conversations.

The First Minister discussed the Aviemore planning applications with me on 7 December 2007, at approximately 12.40 hours. The Principal Private Secretary to the First Minister was present during this conversation. The discussion centred on the representations submitted by cross-party Parliamentarians expressing concern over the Aviemore applications which suggested that Scottish Government agencies might be responsible for delaying matters. I told the First Minister that, as minister responsible for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), and in the light of representations made to me on the previous evening by Rhoda Grant MSP, Mary Scanlon MSP, John Farquhar Munro MSP and Fergus Ewing MSP, I had already checked with SEPA that morning in order to ascertain if there were any misunderstandings or matters of process that were unnecessarily holding up the Agency''s proper consideration of the applications and that I was awaiting an update on those issues from the Chief Executive of SEPA. When he provided that at approximately 13.30 that day I then spoke to the First Minister again to inform him of my conclusions.

Within the scope of relevant legislation and in appropriate circumstances, Scottish ministers have the ability to require a body to take a particular action or pursue a particular area of work. This ability is part of the long established framework of governance and accountability to which non-departmental public bodies operate.

No. ministers are always aware of the need to conduct business in line with the ministerial code and to behave in an appropriate manner. In relation to the Aviemore planning applications, in the light of the representations received from parliamentarians from four different parties. I decided it was entirely appropriate, and indeed essential, to speak to the Chief Executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to check there were no misunderstandings or matters of process for SEPA that were unnecessarily holding up proper consideration of the applications.