Scotland's enterprise minister has backed a CAS campaign to end excessive delivery charges to rural areas.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has backed Fergus Ewing’s statement encouraging major retailers not to charge excessive delivery fees to rural areas.

Ewing’s comments come as CAS announced that exactly 200 Scottish businesses have already responded to their survey on the issue, just a week after it was launched.

The enterprise minister has written to UK retailers asking them how they intend to promote new guidelines that state consumers living in rural areas should not be discriminated against by imposing additional delivery charges on products.

The guidelines were developed by the Parcel Delivery Working Group, established last year by the charity Consumer Futures.

CAS chief executive Margaret Lynch said Ewing’s intervention was welcome.

She added: “As we’ve said throughout this campaign, people in Scotland don’t want special treatment. All they want is a fair deal and we are determined to keep fighting for that.”