Chamber and committees

Condition 19 of the consent for the Stirling section of the Beauly to Denny upgrade requires that a visual impact mitigation scheme is approved by Scottish Ministers before any towers and overhead line are erected in the Stirling Council area covered by the Scottish Power Transmission Ltd consent. Scottish Ministers will only decide whether or not to approve the details of that scheme once formal proposals have been submitted by Scottish Power Transmission Ltd.

The number of cases of osteosarcoma (cancer of the bone and articular cartilage) recorded by the Scottish Cancer Registry in each of the last five years can be found at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/servlet/FileBuffer?namedFile=i_cancer_bone_conn.xls&pContentDispositionType=inline.

The most recent year for which complete numbers of cases are available is 2007. Also note that the data available on the website were correct as of 15 December 2009 and may differ from other published data relating to the same time period. This is all due to cancer registration being a dynamic process.

The Advisory Group for National Specialised Services (AGNSS) has recently been established in England to replace the National Commissioning Group which provided advice to the Department of Health on highly specialist health services. Scottish interests are represented on this group through observer attendance by the Director or Medical Director of National Services Division.

The Scottish Government will continue to be advised about specialist health services for patients in Scotland by the National Services Advisory Group. The bodies with responsibility for providing advice about newly licensed medicines and new technologies remain the Scottish Medicines Consortium and the Scottish Health Technologies Group respectively. These bodies will be informed about developments in AGNSS through its Scottish representation.

Scottish ministers promote the Romans in Scotland in a variety of ways. Recognising the importance of the monuments themselves, through Historic Scotland, they have scheduled 238 Roman sites in Scotland as nationally important, 18 of which are currently in the care of Scottish Ministers and are open to the public and promoted as places to visit. Historic Scotland is also currently assessing all Roman forts and camps in Scotland to ensure that the most important sites are preserved for future generations and to celebrate Scotland''s unique Roman heritage.

Following the recognition of the Antonine Wall by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2008, Historic Scotland has worked with the five local authorities and other partners, including the Forestry Commission, British Waterways and the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments, to establish processes and projects aimed at delivering the actions listed in the World Heritage Site Management Plan. A number of projects and events have already taken place. In order to bring a consistent approach to the understanding and promotion of the wall the partners have commissioned (through Historic Scotland Interpretation Unit) an interpretation plan for the Antonine Wall which will be issued for comment in October 2010. It will include a plan for the partner organisations to provide interpretive and educational material relating to the Antonine Wall and the wider story of the Romans in Scotland both on and off site. It will be followed by plans to bring the same consistency to access and marketing all aimed at increasing access to and an understanding of the Romans in Scotland and within the Empire, making it relevant to visitors and local communities alike.

Learning and Teaching Scotland''s Scotland''s History website hosts a section on Caledonians, Picts and Romans that gives access to extensive materials which promote Roman history in Scotland. These include background information, audio and video clips, games and teachers'' resource packs as well as links to the collections databases of National Museums of Scotland, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, the Hunterian Museum and the British Museum. There are also direct links to other relevant websites such as Historic Scotland, the BBC''s Scotland''s History, Channel 4 History, Archaeology Scotland and the Antonine Guard.

There are a wide variety of Roman heritage based events and educational activities which have taken place across Scotland in 2010 involving a number of key partners who share a common interest in the promotion of Roman heritage. Historic Scotland also recently provided grant support for the International Limes Congress, part of which included a tour for international experts of Roman sites in Scotland.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to create a National Roman Centre nor has it plans to commission the research that would be needed to support the development of such a list. The current priority is to work, through Historic Scotland, with local authorities and other partnership organisations to deliver the management plan outcomes agreed with UNESCO in 2008 for the Antonine Wall World Heritage Site.

There are many important collections of Roman artefacts dispersed around Scotland in both national and local museums. Such collections already provide an invaluable resource for the study and interpretation of Roman Scotland.

There were 16 joint operations reported to have taken place between local authorities and HM Revenue and Customs during 2009-10 and six joint operations during 2008-09.

The Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTTS) is expected to publish a report on the progress made under the Enhanced Tobacco Sales Enforcement Programme within the next couple of months. We will inform you when the report is available.

The Scottish Government has made new funding of £4.5 million over three years (2008-09 to 2010-11) available to Scottish local authorities for the Enhanced Tobacco Sales Enforcement Programme. The allocation made to each local authority is intended broadly to support achievement of the range of agreed outcomes and therefore it is not possible to provide a breakdown for funding devoted to individual activities, such as test purchasing or business advice and support. Moreover, while it was envisaged that the new funding would be allocated to trading standards departments, it was made available through the mechanisms provided by the new national performance framework for local authorities enshrined in the Scottish Government and local authority concordat. Under the concordat it is for local authorities to determine how best to utilise the resources in support of the agreed outcomes.

The funding allocated to individual local authorities remained the same for 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 and is shown in the following table.

Local Authority	Funding (£)
Aberdeen City	51,232
Aberdeenshire	59,008
Angus	35,371
Argyll & Bute	47,034
Clackmannanshire	20,546
Dumfries and Galloway	45,220
Dundee City	56,882
East Ayrshire	34,386
East Dunbartonshire	30,550
East Lothian	25,782
East Renfrewshire	25,522
Edinburgh, City of	158,011
Eilean Siar	24,278
Falkirk	37,289
Fife	81,556
Glasgow City	137,330
Highland	95,914
Inverclyde	26,196
Midlothian	24,641
Moray	29,358
North Ayrshire	37,237
North Lanarkshire	77,357
Orkney Islands	20,339
Perth and Kinross	45,012
Renfrewshire	40,088
Scottish Borders	38,066
Shetland Islands	19,872
South Ayrshire	36,978
South Lanarkshire	56,623
Stirling	26,922
West Dunbartonshire	24,745
West Lothian	30,654
Total	1,500,000

 

National targets were set under the programme rather than individual local authority targets. For 2009-10 a target of six joint operations was set and I am pleased to report that the target was exceeded, with 16 operations reported to have taken place over that period. For 2008-09 a target of five joint operations was set and six operations were reported to have taken place.

The information requested is as follows:-

A. 2008-09

i. Test Purchasing

(a) 12 local authorities met their targets.

(b) The authorities were:

Aberdeen City, Angus, Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Shetland, South Ayrshire and West Lothian.

ii. Business Advice and Assistance

(a) 16 local authorities met their targets.

(b) The authorities were:

Angus, Scottish Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Midlothian, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Orkney, Renfrewshire, Shetland, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian.

B. 2009-10

i. Test Purchasing

(a) 20 local authorities met their targets.

(b) The authorities were:

Aberdeen City, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Scottish Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh, Fife, Glasgow, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Shetland, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire and West Lothian.

ii. Business Advice and Assistance

(a) 19 local authorities met their targets.

(b) The authorities were:

Aberdeenshire, Angus, Scottish Borders, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk, Fife, Midlothian, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Orkney, Renfrewshire, Shetland, South Ayrshire, Stirling, West Dunbartonshire, Western Isles and West Lothian.

C. Information is collated annually and therefore 2010-11 data will not be available until later next year.