A Statutory Instrument to amend Schedule 10 of the National Health Service (General Medical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 1995 has been laid in Parliament to come into force on 30 April 2001. This will allow GPs to prescribe nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) on the NHS.Patients who are exempt from prescription charges will not be expected to pay for this treatment. At present, around 90% of prescriptions are dispensed free of charge. Pre-payment certificates are available to help non-exempt patients.In line with the measures in Smoking Kills, health boards were issued in April 1999 with guidance about extending and developing NHS efforts to help people stop smoking. £3 million was allocated over three years to health boards for smoking cessation services, including the provision of one week's free NRT to smokers least able to afford to buy these products.

The number of permanent staff employed in the main departments of the Scottish Executive, its agencies and associated departments are shown in the table.

	31 March 2000	31 March 2001 (est.)
ABERDEEN CITY	488.4	512.0
ABERDEENSHIRE	373.1	361.5
ANGUS	104.1	107.5
ARGYLL & BUTE	53.7	55.8
CITY OF EDINBURGH	6,500.0	6,619.2
CLACKMANNANSHIRE	475.5	476.5
DUMBARTON AND CLYDEBANK	3.0	3.0
DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY	254.4	255.8
DUNDEE CITY	116.7	122.6
EAST AYRSHIRE	59.7	57.7
EAST DUMBARTONSHIRE	154.0	173.0
EAST LOTHIAN	35.7	33.6
EAST RENFREWSHIRE	0.0	0.0
EILIAN SIAR	21.5	26.5
FALKIRK	414.5	483.2
FIFE	109.1	109.6
GLASGOW CITY	1,543.6	1,642.1
HIGHLANDS	311.0	329.5
INVERCLYDE	268.2	269.2
MIDLOTHIAN	0.0	0.0
MORAY	38.2	38.2
NORTH AYRSHIRE	0.0	0.0
NORTH LANARKSHIRE	614.3	499.1
ORKNEY	52.6	54.6
PERTH AND KINROSS	608.3	616.3
RENFREWSHIRE	79.6	79.1
SCOTTISH BORDERS	70.7	75.2
SHETLAND	24.9	28.5
SOUTH AYRSHIRE	97.4	106.2
SOUTH LANARKSHIRE	224.8	158.3
STIRLING	319.1	338.2
WEST DUMBARTONSHIRE	40.9	43.2
WEST LOTHIAN	63.1	50.7
WESTERN ISLES	10.6	11.9
TOTAL FOR SCOTLAND	13,530.7	13,737.9

We do not anticipate any significant changes in overall staff numbers over the coming year.Last December I announced to Parliament that detailed reviews of the Edinburgh operations of six public bodies would be undertaken to individual timetables based on lease breaks and other operational factors. In accordance with this timetable we aim to be in a position to make decisions on the location of the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, the Health Education Board for Scotland and sportscotland by 31 March 2002, with a decision on the Common Service Agency of the NHS in Scotland by mid-2002.I also announced at that time that the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care and the Scottish Social Services Council would not be located in Edinburgh. Mr Chisholm announced on 6 March that the national offices of these two new bodies will - if the Parliament passes the necessary legislation to enable them to be established - be located in Dundee. Decisions on regional offices for the Commission will be announced shortly.The policy does not target specific areas but considers locations throughout Scotland that best fit the particular needs of each case.

2003-04 is the latest year for which a projection of GDP is available. Scottish Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) and Non-Domestic Rate Income (NDRI) is projected to be 1.84% of UK GDP

The sum of DEL and NDRI will grow by 12.59% in real terms between 2000-01 and 2003-04, equating to more money being spent on the needs of the Scottish people.Due to the conversion to resource accounting, the sum of DEL (Departmental Expenditure Limits) and NDRI (Non-Domestic Rate Income) is the most robust basis on which to make this comparison.

None.

A developer is carrying out a phased development at Anniesland Village Business Park which aims to create or safeguard up to 480 jobs by mid-2002.

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the United Kingdom Government on a wide range of issues, including cross-channel rail freight services.

The Scottish Executive encourages all local authorities to consider innovative forms of service delivery such as the development of "one-stop-shops". It has provided practical encouragement to this kind of innovation through the Modernising Government Fund (MGF). This has awarded £2 million towards the "Wired West Lothian" project, which is one of a series of MGF supported initiatives that promote inter-agency working and the use information and communications technology (ICT) to provide more joined up services to the public.MGF projects are scheduled to run until March 2002. All of the projects will be monitored, with regular updates and results published on the Scottish Executive's 21st Century Government website. This way all local authorities will benefit from the good practice that results from the projects.The Executive has also established the Central Local 21st Century Government Forum, which includes representatives of West Lothian Council. This has been set up to endorse and promote new models of service delivery across local authorities.In addition the Executive has also agreed to consider whether there are unnecessary barriers to the development of service solutions such as one-stop shops within constraints on local authority trading and, if so, how best to deal with them.

I understand that Camden Borough Council has a street population strategy, which aims to minimise the impact of street activity in the borough. This includes reducing rough sleeping by at least two thirds, but also aims to reduce begging, street drinking and street trading. Our approach to rough sleeping in Scotland is to find solutions by involving those who have experience and knowledge of the problems. We are not targeting particular groups, such as beggars-we are addressing the underlying reasons for their situation.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-14782.

The Executive is committed to tackling poverty and deprivation wherever it exists across urban and rural Scotland. A range of data is used to assess deprivation, such as proportions of income support recipients, employment data, the deprivation index and indicators in the Social Inclusion Partnership monitoring framework. Our recent annual report on social justice sets out the indicators being used to track progress towards the milestones for delivering social justice in Scotland.The current Scottish Deprivation Index, revised in 1998, ranks postcode sectors by combining 1991 Census indicators with more recent non-Census indicators of deprivation. We intend to further revise this index as part of our Neighbourhood Statistics initiative and update it as data becomes available from Census 2001.In addition, for rural deprivation, part of the remit of the Rural Poverty and Inclusion Working Group is to ensure that existing indicators are appropriately developed for, and measurable in, rural areas. The group will make recommendations on general data availability for rural areas, including ways of improving monitoring of progress against the social justice milestones for rural areas. We expect the group's report soon.