Seòmar agus comataidhean

Saltire only: Thefollowing courts fly the Saltire flag on a daily basis:

Mercaitgait, Aberdeen

Inverness

Lerwick

Parliament House,Edinburgh

Lawnmarket, Edinburgh

(a) Union Flag only:The following courts fly the Union flag on a daily basis:

Saltmarket, Glasgow

(b) Both Flags: Nocourts fly both flags together.

There is no separatecategorisation for concessionary cardholder companions in Transport Scotland’s concessionary claim process. Therefore it is not possibleto identify separately this element of concessionary travel. Projections are basedon total concessionary journey levels.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-3236 on 4 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

NHS boards have arole to ensure a care package is provided which offers appropriate medical careand support for every patient, including end of life services. As far as possible,they should ensure that the needs and wishes of the patient and their family aremet. The Scottish Government fully supports and endorses the principle of choiceand welcomes initiatives that increase and support the choices of patients. We haveindicated our support for the voluntary sector involvement in caring for patientswith life ending illnesses. The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care providesa unique forum for the development and implementation of palliative care strategyand good practice, a comprehensive communication network, and a source of expertadvice and guidance for practitioners, service managers, planners and policy managers.Many charities and voluntary organisations are active in this area including MarieCurie Cancer Care. Its work in NHS Tayside through the Delivering Choice Programmehas the potential to identify further opportunities specifically to support patientswho wish to die at home. We await with interest, the results of this programme, which is currently being piloted. However, the choicehas to be properly informed so that patients who opt to die at home do so in thefull understanding of the support they may need.

The third sectorprovides a unique contribution predominantly at the point of early engagementwith young people who are, or are not at risk of being not in education,employment or training.

We have askedlocal partnerships delivering our more choices, more chances agenda to worktowards better engagement of the third sector, and to make better use of allexisting resources so that employability provision joins up with widerprovision.

We recognisethere are barriers, for example around funding arrangements and engagement instrategic planning activity, to more effective engagement of the third sector.We are considering how we can tackle those barriers, both generally and withspecific reference to young people who need more choices and chances.

This informationis not held centrally.

This informationis not held centrally.

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.

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.