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This information is not held centrally.

In partnership with the Scottish Chambers of Commerce and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise supports Business Mentoring Scotland (BMS). The latest phase of BMS was launched on 20 August 2008. It aims to advise around 1,200 businesses per annum, across Scotland, including tourism-related businesses. This service provides three levels of support:

Online information and registration facilities

A series of group mentoring meetings across the network of local chambers to provide access to a wider pool of contacts and business knowledge and opportunities

One-to-one mentoring

Twenty tourism businesses have been supported by BMS so far this year. One hundred and sixteen tourism businesses were supported in 2007. Currently, 25 of the mentors have experience in tourism.

The management of speed is a primary consideration of road authorities, police forces, and Safety Camera Partnerships. Under the Scottish Safety Camera Programme, two mobile camera sites have been established on the A78. One is sited on Inverkip Road, Greenock the other on Main Road, Fairlie. Since these sites were established, the average traffic speed at the camera sites has fallen to 27mph and 32mph respectively.

In addition to the deployment of safety cameras, the police regularly patrol the A78 and enforce a wide range of road traffic legislation including those laws relating to speeding.

Transport Scotland is trialling various types of 30mph reminder vehicle activated signs within villages as part of its speed management strategy. On the A78, villages included in the trial are Skelmorlie and Seamill. Once the most effective and reliable system has been established this initiative will be extended, where appropriate, to other villages. These signs should begin to be installed from 2009.

The effectiveness of the A77 average speed camera system will be fully assessed once three full years of data is available. The potential to introduce more average speed cameras will be informed by this assessment towards the end of 2008, once accident data is available for the three full years since implementation.

There are currently no proposals to signalise existing junctions or construct roundabouts on the A78 trunk road at Inverkip.

Support for local authority roads is provided through the core local government finance settlement. It is however for the local authorities themselves to determine the level of spending for road safety in their area.

Generally it is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities including the Scottish Government''s key strategic objectives and manifesto commitments.

We are funding the Carbon Trust in Scotland, the Energy Saving Scotland advice network and Envirowise Scotland to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to reduce carbon emissions. They provide a number of practical support measures including:

Free and impartial information and advice;

Free on-site energy, waste and water audits;

Practical guides and best practice literature;

Low carbon, clean fuel and renewable technologies;

Green fleet reviews and sustainable travel planning;

Relevant training and seminars, and

Signposting to financial support schemes.

The Scottish Government takes road safety very seriously and is committed to making the roads safer for all road users.

We are developing a 10-year road safety strategy for Scotland and have set up a panel of experts to advise on possible measures. The strategy will be published in late 2008.

The Scottish Government provides funding to Road Safety Scotland (RSS) for the production of key road safety education initiatives and publicity messages. RSS brings together the main organisations interested in road safety, including local and central government, the police, fire and rescue service, motoring organisations and voluntary organisations.

Amongst other initiatives the Scottish Government provided funding totalling nearly £50 million between 2003 and 2008 to local authorities for 20mph schemes outside schools and related safety projects, including safer routes to school and home zones.

The implementation of road safety projects is a matter for relevant roads authorities, Transport Scotland for the trunk road network and local authorities for the local roads network.

The Scottish Government is working with Scottish Enterprise to develop a performance measurement and evaluation framework that is focused on national outcomes as set out in The Government Economic Strategy.

We offer loans of between £5,000 and £100,000 through our interest free loan scheme to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises make capital investments in energy efficiency and microgeneration technologies.