asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what assistance is being paid to Caledonian MacBrayne Ltd., the Orkney Islands Shipping Company Ltd. and North of Scotland Orkney and Shetland Shipping Company Ltd. (P and O Ferries) for the maintenance and improvement of services to the Scotttish Islands.

In line with the Government's commitment to increase assistance in real terms to ferry services to the Scottish Islands I am offering the following revenue grants for the forthcoming financial year.

Caledonian Macbrayne Ltd.	£5·0 million
Orkney Islands Shipping Co. Ltd.	£0·7 million

The corresponding sums offered for this year were £3·7 million and £0·6 million, respectively.I also propose to increase to £1·6 million the assistance I give to freight traffic on the roll on/roll off services to Orkney and Shetland which the North of Scotland Orkney and Shetland Shipping Co. Ltd. (P & O Ltd.) operates from Aberdeen and Scrabster.