The Executive meets HM Government to discuss the oil and gas industry very frequently. My involvement as Vice-Chairman of Pilot, the successor to the Oil and Gas Industry Task Force, involves regular meetings with the Minister for Energy at the Department of Trade and Industry. Other meetings, at both Ministerial and official levels, take place to address specific issues.

The use of inspired parliamentary questions was considered by the Procedures Committee at its meeting on 15 February, and was acknowledged as a useful method for bringing matters to the attention of the Parliament. Without them some of the wide range of activities of the Executive, which cannot all be the subject of statements or debates in the Parliament, would simply not be noted in the Parliament at all. I am sure that the majority of members would prefer a mechanism such as this to alert them to Executive activity rather than learning of them third-hand through the media. Indeed members of non-Executive parties, and in particular Mr Lochhead's party, have said so on a number of occasions.

Compared with the total number of parliamentary questions, the number inspired by the Executive is very small - only one in 50. Several members have asked more questions than the entire number of inspired questions. The cost of answering inspired questions is also much less than that of answering ordinary questions as, by their very nature, the information presented in the answer is already available and does not require further work.

As I indicated in my response to S1W-4815, questions inspired by the Executive are not separately identified in our records. The list provided in that response was compiled by calculating the interval between the lodging of each question and the lodging of the answer (the relevant questions being answered normally within a few days), followed by examination of the text of the questions and answers thus identified. This was found to give a reliable indication of questions which had been inspired by the Executive.

No equivalent of the process by which the Scottish Executive may inspire the tabling of a written parliamentary question (referred to in questions S1W-4815 and 5379) exists in relation to oral parliamentary questions. The random selection process for oral questions and the limits on when oral questions could be answered mean that such a process would not be suited to bringing matters to the attention of the Parliament.

Members from all political parties have followed up discussions/contacts with Ministers by tabling questions for oral answer or by asking supplementary questions. Such instances cannot be identified from records held by the Executive.

The Scottish Executive is committed to the promotion of renewable energy. There may be some commercial opportunities for the oil and gas fabrication sectors from the expected growth in this activity. The likely scale of work that might become available has been discussed with the fabrication industry, but it will be for individual companies to pursue these opportunities.

It is not the Executive's policy to set specific targets for any individual renewable energy technology, such as offshore wind.

The Scottish Executive does not have access to advice which may have been given to a previous administration.

No.

There are occasions when, for the convenience of members, the Executive brings a matter to the attention of the Parliament by means of a Written Parliamentary Question. This is an appropriate mechanism for matters which are not so significant as to require a ministerial statement.

The lodging of a parliamentary question is a matter for the member concerned, and no officials have authorisation to lodge questions on behalf of members.

Although not identified separately in our records, it has been possible to identify the following 116 questions (out of the 4,800 lodged to 28 February) as being inspired by the Executive.0162, 0164, 0182, 0268, 0284, 0285, 0286, 0347, 0366, 0367, 0460, 0696, 0697, 0719, 0804, 0846, 0847, 0848, 0936, 1011, 1012, 1013, 1230, 1304, 1351, 1420, 1443, 1464, 1502, 1558, 1583, 1648, 1649, 1678, 1679, 1719, 1919, 1992, 2104, 2114, 2115, 2149, 2150, 2230, 2231, 2391, 2445, 2446, 2473, 2530, 2559, 2560, 2591, 2592, 2593, 2612, 2649, 2651, 2652, 2680, 2681, 2682, 2714, 2752, 2768, 2795, 2805, 2860, 2931, 2945, 2985, 2986, 3022, 3023, 3126, 3294, 3304, 3352, 3353, 3354, 3388, 3411, 3412, 3413, 3448, 3655, 3656, 3663, 3769, 3789, 3854, 3855, 3866, 3867, 3868, 3955, 3997, 4008, 4083, 4084, 4110, 4161, 4162, 4163, 4224, 4266, 4293, 4313, 4363, 4413, 4433, 4443, 4558, 4640, 4700 and 4701.

Figures for the Scottish water authorities' proposed capital investment programme and indicative EFLs for the next two years are given in the following table.£ million

Scottish water authorities	2000-01	2001-02
Capital Expenditure	451.0	469.0
External Finance Limits	201.9*	218.0

* In-year adjustment to EFLs for the current year to accommodate fluctuations in Water Authorities' capital expenditure programmes had the net effect of bringing forward £15 million from 2000-01 into 1999-2000.

For the period of the strategic review, 2000-01 and 2001-02, water authorities plan to invest around £930 million in water and sewerage infrastructure. In addition to this the water authorities will procure some major sewerage services through partnership schemes with the private sector. It is very difficult to make an assessment of the capital costs of PFI schemes - that is a matter for the PFI contractors themselves - but our best estimate would be around £375 million, around 28% of the total investment required for the same period.