Seòmar agus comataidhean

The locations of Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) monitoring sites in the north-east Scotland parliamentary region, can be found from the SEPA maps entitled SEPA Groundwater Monitoring (Parliament's Reference Centre, Bib. number 20139) and SEPA Surface Water Monitoring (Bib. number 20140). Further locational details of the monitoring sites can be obtained from the local SEPA office in Aberdeen, or from the SEPA Corporate Office in Stirling.

In the following tables, the number of prescriptions issued for methadone in each of the last five years in each health board area is shown in table 1, and table 2 sets out the number of dispensings carried out in accordance with prescriber's instructions. Current year data are not available.It is not possible to determine the volume of prescribing of drug substitutes, other than methadone because such drugs can also be appropriately prescribed for the treatment of certain medical conditions. These data refer to prescriptions dispensed in the community and do not take into account medicines dispensed by hospitals or hospital based clinics.Table 1: Methadone - Number of Prescribed Items:

Health Board	Number of Prescribed Items
	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01
Argyll and Clyde	8,167	13,780	18,451	21,749	24,319
Ayrshire and Arran	12,789	21,649	23,751	25,209	26,576
Borders	427	477	473	425	521
Dumfries and Galloway	6,548	6,259	7,139	6,531	7,238
Fife	5,017	6,677	7,599	9,449	11,398
Forth Valley	2,758	2,744	2,362	2,561	3,094
Grampian	13,396	15,006	17,924	22,863	26,931
Greater Glasgow	69,023	75,689	80,342	87,152	98,897
Highland	1,068	1,082	1,626	2,461	2,388
Lanarkshire	11,034	12,552	17,847	24,929	28,940
Lothian	18,549	18,877	19,567	23,139	26,312
Orkney	17	15	17	16	9
Shetland	153	245	372	353	652
Tayside	13,919	14,533	15,155	15,709	17,172
Western Isles	3	7	10	11	3
Total	162,868	189,592	212,635	242,557	274,450

Table 2: Methadone - Number of Dispensings:

Health Board	Number of Dispensed Items
	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01
Argyll and Clyde	72,238	133,726	201,803	243,356	314,851
Ayrshire and Arran	58,797	103,716	113,963	125,240	155,010
Borders	2,314	2,927	2,244	2,102	3,010
Dumfries and Galloway	14,877	15,897	28,873	35,832	40,333
Fife	29,979	42,623	64,715	85,624	117,528
Forth Valley	23,428	31,427	32,332	39,700	52,534
Grampian	73,782	101,494	152,075	215,705	283,015
Greater Glasgow	619,964	740,037	830,292	914,886	1,178,988
Highland	4,334	4,271	7,089	13,769	14,422
Lanarkshire	30,885	43,960	80,578	141,789	205,731
Lothian	145,827	161,738	197,206	245,302	297,526
Orkney	17	15	17	16	9
Shetland	395	493	754	626	2,206
Tayside	101,094	119,445	141,752	163,207	189,665
Western Isles	9	34	55	57	6
Total	1,177,940	1,501,803	1,853,748	2,227,211	2,854,834

The network of 48 Social Inclusion Partnership's which has been established across Scotland includes both urban and rural areas. Rural areas such as Moray are being supported as well as traditional urban areas, such as Glasgow.

Thirteen meetings of the Ministerial Committee on Rural Development were held during the period from 1 September 1999 to November 2001: on 1 September, 5 October, and 25 November 1999; 31 January, 13 March, 5 April, 6 September and 8 November 2000; 30 January, 26 March, 14 June, 11 September and 14 November 2001. In January 2002, the name of the committee was changed to the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Rural Development, with the following membership: the Minister for Environment and Rural Development, the Minister for Social Justice, the Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning, the Minister for Finance and Public Services, Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development and the Deputy Minister for Tourism Culture and Sport. Details of the membership of Cabinet Sub-Committees are available on the Scottish Executive website. So far this year the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Rural Development has met once, on 5 February 2002. All meetings discussed a variety of issues that impact on Rural Development in Scotland.As indicated in the Guide to Collective Decision Making, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 5884) and on the Scottish Executive website, the Executive operates on the basis of collective responsibility and does not disclose details of the internal processes through which decisions have been made. For that reason, the Executive does not normally comment on which ministers attended specific meetings.

Twelve local authorities are considered as delivering pre-school education in "very rural" areas, i.e. areas where more than 15% of the population live in communities of less than 1,000. The "rural" allocations which form part of the 2002-03 local government settlement are shown in the following table. The distribution methodology used took account of the population share of three- and four-year-olds in the 12 authorities concerned.

Local Authority	Rural Grant
Aberdeenshire	£1,348,000
Angus	£370,000
Argyll and Bute	£431,000
Dumfries and Galloway	£827,000
Eilean Siar	£255,000
Highland	£1,207,000
Moray	£310,000
Orkney	£184,000
Perth and Kinross	£489,000
Scottish Borders	£506,000
Shetland	£258,000
Stirling	£242,000
Scotland	£6,427,000

As of 4 March, the owners of 80 fishing vessels have accepted decommissioning grant offers under the Fishing Vessels (Decommissioning) (Scotland) Scheme 2001, out of 102 vessels currently subject to grant offers. Of these vessels, 70 have submitted, and had approved, plans to begin the decommissioning process. Nine vessels have been scrapped so far: four in Scotland, two in England, two in Northern Ireland and one in Denmark.

The estimated impact on each college will not be known until the council has developed a detailed implementation plan. The council has indicated that there will be no consequential changes to funding until academic year 2003-04 at the earliest.

Given the large number of matters under consideration and potential outcome permutations, it was not practical for SFEFC to estimate the impact of everything being consulted on.The council has indicated that it now proposes to work closely with colleges in preparing an implementation plan, if necessary making adjustments to aspects of these proposals; and that it will not expect any college to have to manage a significant funding change in just one year.

The Scottish Further Education Funding Council, which is responsible for these matters, developed the new approach to measuring student activity.

The information requested is given in the following table:

Date of visit	End date(if different)	Minister	Purpose
07/07/1999		Jack McConnell	Fact finding and Structural Funds visit
29/09/1999		Jack McConnell	Pre-Scotland week press briefing
11/10/1999	13/10/1999	Ross Finnie	Scotland Week
10/10/1999	13/10/1999	Donald Dewar	Scotland Week
10/10/1999	14/10/1999	Jack McConnell	Scotland Week
11/10/1999	12/10/1999	Peter Peacock	Scotland Week
13/10/1999		Sarah Boyack	Scotland Week
14/10/1999		Henry McLeish	Scotland Week
14/10/1999	15/10/1999	Rhona Brankin	Scotland Week
15/10/1999		Alasdair Morrison	Scotland Week
22/11/1999		John Home Robertson	Fisheries Council
13/12/1999	14/12/1999	Sarah Boyack	Environment Council
14/12/1999	15/12/1999	Ross Finnie	Agriculture Council
16/12/1999	17/12/1999	John Home Robertson	Fisheries Council
20/03/2000	21/03/2000	Ross Finnie	Agriculture Council
22/03/2000		Jack McConnell	Launch of Structural Funds Equal Opportunities Toolbox. Met with Commissioners Schrey and Barnier
27/03/2000		Sarah Boyack	Meeting with Commissioner de Palacio's Cabinet
27/03/2000		Jack McConnell	Meeting Francis Jacobs of the European Parliament and the Bavarian Regional Office
07/04/2000		Jim Wallace	Meeting with Commissioner Vitorino
09/05/2000		Ross Finnie	Attended Scottish Seafood Exhibition
09/05/2000		Alasdair Morrison	Attended Scottish Seafood Exhibition
05/06/2000	06/06/2000	Jack McConnell	Attended Structural Funds conference
12/07/2000		Jack McConnell	Delivered speech at Flanders Festival and attended CLRAE meeting in Brugge
18/09/2000		Susan Deacon	Meeting with Commissioner Byrne
17/11/2000		Rhona Brankin	Fisheries Council
20/11/2000	21/11/2000	Ross Finnie	Agriculture Council
29/11/2000	30/11/2000	Jim Wallace	Justice and Home Affairs Council
06/12/2000		Henry McLeish	Meeting with Commissioner Kinnock and meeting with Scottish MEPs
11/12/2000		Sam Galbraith	Opened Scotland in Europe Cultural Exhibition in Scotland House and met with Commissioner Wallstrom
14/12/2000	15/12/2000	Rhona Brankin	Fisheries Council
28/01/2001		Jack McConnell	Meeting Nigel Sheinwald and Swedish Representative Office
05/02/2001	06/02/2001	Sarah Boyack	Meeting with Commissioner de Palacio's Chef de Cabinet
05/02/2001		Angus Mackay	Meeting on Objective 2 Structural Funds
12/02/2001		Nicol Stephen	Education and Youth Council
26/02/2001	27/02/2001	Ross Finnie	Agricultural Council
08/03/2001		Sam Galbraith	Environment Council
08/03/2001		Alasdair Morrison	Columba Initative - Launch of the Strategic Plan
16/03/2001		Jack McConnell	Governance Hearing
24/04/2001	25/04/2001	Rhona Brankin	Hosted Forestry Seminar in Scotland House and attended Europe's premier Seafood Exhibition
21/05/2001	22/05/2001	Peter Peacock	Meeting of the Cohesion Fund countries on structural funds
28/05/2001		Henry McLeish	Signed Flanders Co-ordinated Initative
13/07/2001		Angus MacKay	Informal Council meeting on Regional Policy
19/09/2001	20/09/2001	Angus MacKay	Meeting with Commissioner Barnier and met with Scottish MEP's
09/10/2001	10/10/2001	Jack McConnell	Scotland Week: Attended a range of events
09/10/2001	10/10/2001	Henry McLeish	Scotland Week: Attended a range of events
09/10/2001	10/10/2001	Alasdair Morrison	Scotland Week: Attended a range of events
10/10/2001	12/10/2001	Rhona Brankin	Scotland Week: Attended a range of events
11/10/2001		Ross Finnie	Scotland Week: Attended a range of events
16/10/2001		Angus MacKay	Scotland Week: Attended a range of events
17/10/2001		Peter Peacock	Scotland Week: Attended a range of events
16/11/2001		Jim Wallace	Justice and Home Affairs Council
20/11/2001		Ross Finnie	Agriculture Council
17/12/2001	18/12/2001	Ross Finnie	Fisheries Council
29/01/2002	30/01/2002	Wendy Alexander	Attended Nordrhein Westfalen project launch
05/02/2002	07/02/2002	Nicol Stephen	Committee of the Regions Plenary