§ Mr. KynochTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on rural policy in Scotland.
§ Mr. LangIt is now almost three years since the publication of the Scottish Office rural framework, which outlined a new approach to the development of rural policy in Scotland. It emphasised our commitment to ensuring that the needs of our rural communities are met in a way which fully reflects their distinctive and diverse character. Co-ordination of action by Government Departments, agencies, the private and voluntary sectors and local authorities has been achieved through the mechanism of the rural focus group.
It is now an appropriate moment to review our rural policies and the machinery we have in place for delivering them and I intend to report the outcome of that review in a White Paper on rural Scotland, to be published in the autumn.