This information isnot held centrally. The Agenda for Change system was agreed in partnership at aUK level between NHS employers, trades unions and professionalorganisations and the UK Health Departments. All sides recognise the benefits of the new system and the operation and administration of job matching panels is amatter which is addressed locally through NHS boards and staff-side representativesworking in partnership.

Job analysis questionnaireswould not go to matching panels but rather to evaluation panels. Matching panelsmatch job descriptions to national profiles. We do not collect data centrally onthe time taken by either evaluation panels or matching panels. The Agenda for Changesystem was agreed in partnership at a UK level between NHS employers, trades unionsand professional organisations and the UK Health Departments. All sides recognisethe benefits of the new system and the operation of evaluation and matching panelsis a matter which is addressed locally through NHS boards and staff-side representativesworking in partnership.

It was the view of the Scottish Pay Reference and Implementation Group (SPRIG), the partnership groupwhich oversaw the introduction of the new system, that an exercise to make availableinformation about overall job evaluation outcomes across Scotland would only have real merit once the implementation processhad been concluded. Whilst we are not in a position to present this data currently,I can confirm that this is actively being taken forward.

Data on the numberof (a) verbal and (b) written warnings issued by trading standards by local authorityarea is not held by the Scottish Government. However, we do hold information onthe number of local authorities which issued warnings for underage tobacco salesfrom 2000 to 2006 and the available information is given in the following table.

Year/Period	Total Amount of Local Authorities that Issued Warnings	Amount of Local Authorities that Did Not Issue Warnings	Unknown
2000-01	23	9	0
2001-02	25	6	1
2002-03	26	5	1
2003-04	27	4	1
2004-05	24	5	3
2005-06	22	8	2

 

Since 2006 the ScottishGovernment has been working with the Society for Chief Officers of Trading Standardsin Scotland in order to record the level of test purchasing for age restricted goodsbeing undertaken by local authorities in Scotland. The data collected does not specifically include information on the numberof warnings issued for underage tobacco sales and it is therefore not possible togive a figure for 2006-07.

This level of detailis not held centrally. However, from information to hand I can confirm that in theregion of 7% of the NHSScotland staff covered by Agenda for Change do not matchto existing job profiles and therefore require to fill out a job analysis questionnaireas part of the assimilation process.

The available informationis given in the following table. No breakdown of these figures into prosecutionsof retailers and licensees is available from the data held centrally.

Persons ProceededAgainst in Scottish Courts for Selling Tobacco to Persons Under 16¹,by Approximate Local Authority Area², 2000-01 to 2005-06

Local Authority	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2005-06
Aberdeenshire	-	-	-	1	-
East Lothian	-	-	-	-	1
Edinburgh, City of	-	-	-	2	-
North Lanarkshire	-	1	-	-	-
West Lothian	-	-	-	-	1
Scotland	-	1	-	3	2

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Incorporates anapproximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courtswill deal with cases from more than one local authority area. Some local authorityareas, including East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Midlothian and North Ayrshire, do not contain a sheriffcourt.

More recent informationavailable from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service shows that in 2006-07a total of 11 people were subject to court proceedings in respect of illegal salesof tobacco.

The available informationis given in the following table. No breakdown of these figures into prosecutionsof retailers and licensees is available from the data held centrally.

Persons with aCharge Proved in Scottish Courts for Selling Tobacco to Persons Under 16¹,by Approximate Local Authority Area², 2000-01 to 2005-06

Local Authority	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2005-06
Aberdeenshire	-	-	-	1	-
East Lothian	-	-	-	-	1
Edinburgh, City of	-	-	-	2	-
North Lanarkshire	-	1	-	-	-
West Lothian	-	-	-	-	1
Scotland	-	1	-	3	2

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Incorporates anapproximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courtswill deal with cases from more than one local authority area. Some local authorityareas, including East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Midlothian and North Ayrshire, do not contain a sheriffcourt.

More recent informationavailable from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service shows that in 2006-07a total of 11 people were subject to court proceedings in respect of illegal salesof tobacco.

The Procurator Fiscalis responsible for investigating all sudden, suspicious, unexplained, unexpectedor accidental deaths and will consider, based on all the facts and circumstances,whether a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) is necessary.

Current legislationprovides for mandatory fatal accident inquiries in respect of deaths whichoccur in the course of employment or in legal custody, and for discretionary FAIswhere it appears to the Lord Advocate to be in the public interest to hold suchan inquiry. A full investigation by the Procurator Fiscal will precede an FAI.

FAIs are held in public.The sheriff who presides over the FAI makes a determination, on the facts and circumstancesof the case at the conclusion of the FAI and may issue recommendations which arenot currently legally enforceable.

The Scottish Governmentmaintains a public database of FAI determinations.

eTourism Ltd,trading as visitscotland.com, was established in 2002 as a Public Privatepartnership joint venture company, with total funding of £7.5 million beingprovided by its shareholders including VisitScotland. One quarter of thefunding, or £1.875 million, was provided by the Scottish Government throughVisitScotland as an interest bearing loan, on the condition that it will berepaid when visitscotland.com is trading profitably. No other public funds havebeen provided to visitscotland.com since then.

Visitscotland.comis not a member organisation, but a commercial enterprise set up to provide Scottishtourism businesses and accommodation providers a route to the quickly expandingsector of the market which wishes to use the internet to research and book holidaysonline. Since its launch in 2002, visitscotland.com has built up around 11,500 businesssubscribers, about 85% of which are small businesses such as B&Bs, guest housesand self caterers. Many of these receive very significant numbers of their bookingsthrough visitscotland.com.

Annual figures forthe numbers of businesses which have ceased subscribing to visitscotland.com, orthe income lost as a result, are not currently available because of the introductionof new software. However, the number of accommodation businesses subscribing tovisitscotland.com has increased by about 120 between last year and this.