I thank Mr Brownlee for his remarks—I suppose I should be generous, after what he said.

On how much the package of measures will save, I cannot give him a definitive figure today. We will work to ensure that, through taking steps to improve efficiency and clarity of structure in the delivery of services, we leverage out other resources that can be invested in supporting frontline economic and enterprise development. The Government will, as with all its plans, come back to Parliament with the exact manifestation of how that will take its course.

On when the reforms will take place, we will work towards implementing them in advance of the start of the next financial year, in 2008. We are working with various stakeholders to achieve that timescale for implementation.

On local authorities, I emphasise what I said in my statement about the role of local authorities. I visited 18 local authorities around Scotland over the summer and, on each occasion, I held a discussion with representatives of the public, private and voluntary sectors. I came across some excellent examples of joint working between local authorities, the enterprise team and the local business community, often involving chambers of commerce. I witnessed the whole powerful process of drawing people together and focusing on the objective of improving the economic prospects of a local area. We will encourage people in local authorities to work in that fashion to draw together all that activity.