§ Mr. Donald Stewartasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on progress made towards the introduction of the road equivalent tariff on routes to the Western Isles.
§ Mr. YoungerI have been examining the possibility of basing support for ferry services generally on road equivalent tariffs. This review has taken a little longer than was originally hoped, but a
310Wway to which objections have been made and the information is as follows:
consultation document will be issued very shortly. The large increase in the Government's grant to Caledonian MacBrayne which I announced last week is in line with our promise to increase assistance in real terms to Western Isles and other services.