It is a great pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Mr. Cook. I congratulate my right hon. Friend Malcolm Bruce on securing this debate, which is on an important topic and is being held at an apposite time.

I agree with all the points that my right hon. Friend made, but I particularly endorse what he said about the effect that the location of the weather stations has on the cold weather payment. I am sure that Members from all parts of the north of Scotland have similar problems with the location of the weather stations; it leads to communities living in certain geographical circumstances that experience very cold weather being disadvantaged when it comes to the allocation of those moneys.

I hope that the Minister takes on board what my right hon. Friend said about the weather station in his Constituency, and that he is willing to extend the principle. Perhaps he will don his snowshoes or his skis and tour the north of Scotland, to experience for himself some of the variations in weather that occur in geographically contiguous areas.