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Procedures for future tendering rounds will take into account experience gained during the present process.

It is a European requirement to set up a 3 km protection zone around any infected farm. Within this radius there is a high risk of local disease spread.

Information from the Office International des Epizootics (OIE), the World organisation for animal health in Paris indicates that airborne spread of foot and mouth disease can be as much as 60km overland and 300km by sea. Those are maximum distances under favourable conditions. In practice the possibility of aerosol spread depends on a number of factors including, number and species of the affected host animal, weather conditions (wind speed, air temperature, relative humidity). Aerosol spread overland is also subject to variation caused by land features which might disrupt the plume of virus.However, insofar as this particular strain of virus is concerned, initial studies based on observations made in other countries suggest that aerosol transmission from infected premises has not been a prominent feature. So far this would appear to be being borne out in this country, as the spread appears to be by direct contact particularly through sheep. The position obviously is being monitored very carefully as the outbreak continues.

I am satisfied that the slaughter of sheep stocks within infected areas is based on sound veterinary advice. This advice cannot be made publicly available as it contains certain information which if disclosed would harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion between Ministers and Officials. The Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information provides an exemption in such circumstances.

I attended the Agriculture Council on 19 February where I made clear my opposition to the proposals that affected the Suckler Cow and Beef Special Premium Schemes. You can be assured that there will be a Scottish Executive presence at any forthcoming meetings when proposals that affect the Scottish beef industry are discussed.

The Commission Proposals to the Council of Europe were published on 13 February. An official from the Scottish Executive was present when they were discussed at the Council's Special Committee of Agriculture on 26 February and 12 March. I attended the Agriculture Council on 19 February and an official attended a Council Working Group on Wednesday 28 February. On each occasion, our strong opposition was expressed to elements of the proposals that could adversely affect Scotland's beef industry.

Officials from the Food Standards Agency notified Scottish Ministers on 12 January that offal from the offspring animal may have passed into the food chain.

The Enterprise Networks are subject to regular and full Policy and Financial Management Review by my department. Management Statements provide the financial, managerial and operational framework for the networks and annual Operating Plans provide the main focus for operational scrutiny. Both are published and are publicly available. The annual accounts of both Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are published, laid before Parliament and are publicly available. The networks have also been subject to scrutiny by the Scottish Affairs Committee, the Committee on Standards in Public Life, the National Audit Office and now by Audit Scotland.The Strategy for Enterprise, A Smart Successful Scotland, published on 30 January 2001 will result in a more strategic relationship between the Executive and the networks. The Executive will set the broad direction, work with the networks on policy development, monitoring and evaluation and the networks themselves will take responsibility for implementation. A new Joint Performance Team (comprising of the Executive and the Enterprise Networks with other external support) will review performance and set challenging targets for the networks. This will enable performance to be judged against the key challenges identified by the Executive of raising productivity, encouraging entrepreneurship, raising skill levels and connecting Scotland globally.

The Scottish Executive considers that the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Deliberate Release Regulations 1992 (as amended) are the appropriate body of law under which to regulate such trials.

The Food Standards Agency advises that the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) routinely carries out random checks on all consignments of imported meat arriving at licensed cutting premises. These random checks have recently been stepped up in light of specified risk material (SRM) failures in consignments of beef from several member states.The agency has instructed the MHS to step up checks on imported meat and specifically to inspect every single consignment of carcass beef imported from Germany through licensed cutting plants, following the cases of beef with SRM attached. Local authorities have also been advised to step up checks on bone-in-beef and sheep meat and the health marking of all meat in the premises they supervise.