The only thing that is cluttered is that question.

It is obvious that Mr Scott was not paying the careful attention to the detail of the statement that I would normally expect from him. The Government has brought forward a range of measures that will abolish local enterprise companies and local enterprise forums and replace them with a sharply reduced number of business advisory boards.

We want to ensure that we guarantee business participation in and input into the formulation of enterprise development policy that is much more focused than it was in the past, which is exactly what I have announced today.

Mr Scott asks why we have abolished local enterprise companies. Given his experience in government, I would have thought that he would understand the complex burdens on local enterprise companies as stand-alone companies in terms of audit, management responsibilities and financial reporting responsibilities. Time spent on that tremendous burden could be spent supporting businesses and their development in Scotland. That is at the heart of what we are saying.

Mr Scott asks about one-to-one business advice at local level. Of course there will be such advice. He asks about social enterprises. One of the announcements that I took the greatest pleasure in making in the past few weeks was the announcement of additional business support for the establishment of social enterprises in Scotland, a sector for which there is tremendous potential. I pay great tribute to the efforts of such enterprises and encourage them to do more.

On local authority involvement, Mr Scott's remarks fly in the face of my experience over the summer. He might have had a different experience around the country, but my experience of local authorities is that many of them are eager to get involved in and to support local economic development. I saw many fine examples of that throughout the country, and I wish to encourage it yet further.