To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-32809 by Ross Finnie on 13 January 2003, how the error in the sample data for the study "Public Attitudes Towards Wind Farms in Scotland" occurred and to what extent the study contributed to the expansion of wind farms in the Highlands and Islands.

The error arose from the inadvertent use of an inaccurate grid reference to map the population samples at one of the four sites surveyed.

The data error covered one particular conclusion drawn from the survey. It did not, however, undermine the central conclusion.