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Performance for rail services between Perth and Edinburgh is monitored by Transport Scotland. The Public Performance Measure (measuring reliability and punctuality) has shown consistent improvement, rising from 85% in 2006 to 91.1% at present. This is the result of a combined effort by First ScotRail and Network Rail to improve both punctuality and reliability across the whole of the Scottish network.

In December 2008, the Scottish Government introduced in partnership with First ScotRail a package of improvements to the Edinburgh-Fife-Aberdeen corridor, which provided an hourly service between Edinburgh and Perth via Fife, and 1,290 additional seats daily.

The Strategic Transport Projects Review published in 2008, sets out our investment priorities, and includes proposals to improve services between Aberdeen/Inverness and the Central Belt. As a first step, improvements will be made on the Highland Main Line, full details will be known later in 2010.

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 Stirling section of the proposed Beauly to Denny upgrade is almost entirely covered by the Scottish Power Transmission Ltd consent and the Scottish Government have no plans, or means within the conditions of the consent, to ask Scottish and Southern Energy to consider undergrounding in the area.

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.

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 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.

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.

I refer the member to answer to question S3W-36274 on 27 September 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

In the five years 2003-04 to 2008-09 there were three, two, five, nine and 12 convictions respectively for selling cigarettes to persons under the legal age of purchase in Scottish courts. It is not possible to say from the information held centrally if any of these convictions were as a result of the Enhanced Tobacco Sales Enforcement Programme.

There have been no convictions in the last five years under sections 8G(4)(a) or 8G(4)(b) of the Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979.

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.