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2.5 full-time equivalent members of staff are currently employed in the Holyrood Evidence Unit (HEU), which was established in September 2003. One other part-time member of staff worked in the HEU between September 2003 and February 2004. The total staff costs associated with the HEU from September 2003 to the end of May 2004 are approximately £95,000.

The Holyrood Evidence Unit co-ordinates the submission of documents to the Inquiry and liaises with witnesses and the Inquiry team.

Sir Liam Donaldson’srecommendations, including that adults should take part in at least 30 minutesof physical activity on five or more days per week, replicate those containedin Let’s Make Scotland More Active, Scotland’s Physical Activity Strategy, whichis now in its second year of implementation.

The care of people with chronicfatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis is arranged and funded by NHS boards.The Executive issued the report of a short life working group set up to makerecommendations for improving services to NHS boards in February 2003, and iscurrently seeking progress reports on action taken since. Copies of the reportswill be made available to the Health Committee.

The Chief Scientist Office(CSO), within the Scottish Executive Health Department, has responsibility forencouraging and supporting research into health and health care needs in Scotland.CSO is largely a response mode funder of research and this role is well knownand advertised throughout the healthcare and academic community. CSO would bepleased to consider research proposals for innovative CFS/ME studies of asufficiently high standard. These would be subject to the usual peer andcommittee review.

The Scottish Executive is committed to improving health andreducing inequalities in health. There are no current plans to initiate pilotstudies and a cost-benefit analysis of exercise on prescription by NHS doctors.However, there are a number of local exercise initiatives in place which arethe subject of review and evaluation. Exercise referral schemes are just onetype of intervention that can be used to promote physical activity for healthgain. It is important to emphasise the broad range of actions being supportedto promote physical activity. Physical activity is one element of the nationaland local approach to improve health and reduce inequalities.

TheExecutive does not employ teachers directly. However we recognise the vitalimportance of physical activity in schools and are committed to providing localauthorities with extra resource to allow them to improve provision in this area.

The SPCB is contractuallybound to review the current contract it has with the Clerk/Chief Executive andwill do so shortly.

The Convener of the HolyroodProgress Group has confirmed that the fit-out package contractor is workingwith 36% of the Scottish oak that had been bought by the Parliament at a costof £29,000 for use in the debating chamber and other public areas of the newbuilding. The stock of Scottish oak originally procured was round timber, sawninto planks for seasoning, and full ownership transferred to the fit-outpackage contractor on appointment. The timber was then kilned, re-sawn andmachined, including the removal of irregular edges, and it is common in thepreparation of timber, for there to be a high percentage of wastage,particularly where a high quality finish is sought. The risk and costsassociated with the process, rest with the contractor.

I have written to Lord Frasergiving an undertaking that nothing which a witness says in the course of Lord Fraser’sinvestigation would be used against the witness in any subsequent criminal proceedings.This level of immunity follows the precedents in other inquiries and follows therecommendations of the Salmon Report on Tribunals of Inquiry.

This does not preclude the possibilityof an investigation by the police or issues being reported to the Procurator Fiscalfor consideration of prosecution where there was sufficient other evidence to meritcriminal proceedings. There is, however, no indication that the investigation willbe looking at issues which involve criminality.

The table shows the local authorities that advised, as part of a Scottish Executive's twice yearly survey, they had vacancies at February 2003 in the subject of home economics:

Local Authority	No. of Vacancies at February 2003	Of which Number of Posts Vacant for More than 3 Months
Aberdeen City	1	1
Eilean Siar	0.4	0.4
Glasgow City	1	0
Highland	1	0
Orkney	1	0
Perth andKinross	1	0
West Dunbartonshire	0.6	0.6
Scotland Total (Headcount)	7	3

There is no evidence of a current shortage of home economic teachers in any local authority area. There were seven vacancies across Scotland at the time of this latest report by local authorities. This relatively low vacancy level was confirmed in April/May this year when local authorities reported vacancy information for the 2003-04 Induction scheme. Fifteen vacant posts were identified for the 2003-04 school session, which could not be filled by probationer teachers. This represents around 1.7% of the teaching complement.The Executive keeps vacancy information under review. Once ScotXed, the Executive led electronic data collection system, is making a full contribution to the teacher workforce planning exercise, better estimates of likely subject demand will be available. This will be reflected in guidance given to the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council on the distribution of places among Initial Teacher Education courses.