§ Ms Rachel SquireTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what progress has been made by the Scottish Enterprise national defence initiative, established on the instructions of the Secretary of State for Scotland, to alleviate the negative impact of defence expenditure reductions on the Scottish economy and to explore defence diversification issues.
§ Mr. StewartThe Scottish defence initiative was established by Scottish Enterprise in November 1991, at the request of my right hon. Friend, as a strategy to deal with the effects on businesses and employment of contraction in defence-related industries. A number of programmes and activities have been implemented as a result of the initiative. Since these are essentially operational matters, Scottish Enterprise is best placed to provide details of progress so far. I have therefore asked the chairman of Scottish Enterprise to write to the hon. Member.