Chamber and committees

The A94 from Perth to Forfar is a local road. Decisions relating to its improvement are the responsibility of the relevant local authorities.

Additional capital allocations for local roads and bridges amounting to £70 million across Scotland were announced late last year, and are included in capital allocations over the three years to March 2004. It is for Stirling Council to decide how to spend its capital allocations. In addition, Stirling Council received £656,000 in additional revenue funding for local roads and bridges as its share of the additional £20 million awarded in February 2002 to further speed up maintenance activity on local roads and bridges.

No ministers attended the conference. However, Scotland's interests were ably represented by the Scottish Enterprise Energy Group.

The Executive intends to come forward with legislative proposals at an early opportunity and we will publish a draft nature conservation bill, based on the proposals contained in the policy statement, The Nature of Scotland, as soon as possible.

Forth Valley NHS Board was notified of its indicative revenue allocations for 2002-03 and 2003-04 on 6 April 2001. A firm revenue allocation for 2002-03 was notified to the board on 7 February 2002. Indicative allocations for future years will be considered following the outcome of Spending Review 2002.

The Scottish Executive itself does not undertake monitoring of radioactivity in the environment. A comprehensive environmental monitoring programme for radioactivity in Scotland is carried out by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. The objectives of this programme include the determination of levels of man made radionuclides in the environment, and the assessment of their effects on human health and the environment. Full details of the monitoring and the assessment of radioactive pollution in the Western Isles are published annually in the Radioactivity in Food and the Environment (RIFE) report. A copy of the latest report (RIFE-6) has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 20376).

Planning policy on such proposals is contained in National Planning Policy Guideline (NPPG) 6: Renewable Energy Developments, which was published in November 2000.In addition, we published the revised Planning Advice Note (PAN) 45: Renewable Energy Technologies in January 2002. PAN 45 supports the policy framework set out in NPPG 6 by providing advice on good practice and other relevant information.We have no current plans to review NPPG 6 and PAN 45. Both documents are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. numbers 18113 and 18913 respectively).

None.

The possibility of increased competition in the water industry has been the subject of two recent public consultations:

• Managing Change in the Water Industry - A Consultation Paper
was published on 15 June 2000 and included a discussion of the scope for competition to develop in the water industry in Scotland.
• The Water Services Bill - The Executive's Proposals was
published on 23 March 2001, and included proposals for a legislative framework that would safeguard public health, environment protection and social objectives in a competitive environment.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-24221, which explained that further consideration of the issues surrounding a legislative framework needed to be undertaken. This is in hand at present. We shall make an announcement when it has been completed.

Although matters concerning the coal industry are reserved, the Scottish Executive have been in regular contact with the Department of Trade and Industry about the future of the Longannet mine. Due to severe flooding which has ended production at Longannet, its operator Scottish Coal (Deep Mine) Co Ltd is now in provisional liquidation.