Chamber and committees

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) flood map shows an estimate of the areas of Scotland with a 0.5% or greater probability of being flooded in any given year “ in other words, those areas estimated to have a one in 200 or greater chance of being flooded in any given year. It provides an indication of areas likely to flood but is not appropriate for assessing risk to individual properties and cannot replace studies at a local scale. The maps are available for planning authorities to consult and if they take the view that there is a flood risk they are required to consult SEPA. The Scottish Government has not commissioned any recent research into housing developments approved in the areas shown on SEPA's map.

In consultation with Fife Council, VisitScotland market Fife in many ways, including:

Promotion of Fife through the VisitScotland website, www.visitfife.com;

Various brochures, guides and maps to encourage visitors to Fife, which are available from tourism information centres, by direct mailing on request and through third parties such as Kingdom FM. The golf guide is also inserted in national publications (e.g. Bunkered magazine);

Fife participating in a range of VisitScotland national marketing campaigns;

Working with partners to encourage visitors into Fife, for example First in Fife golf pass and the ancestral forum run by Fife Council;

Advertisements in key publications “ Walk magazine, Bunkered;

Running the network of tourist information centres which are important for promoting Fife, and

Various other public sector organisations (e.g. Scottish Enterprise) provide funding to support tourism activities across Scotland, and some of that funding is provided in response to needs as they arise, making it difficult to predict what any one area will receive. It is therefore not possible to predict what funding will be of specific benefit to a particular area.

These figures are not available at local authority level. However, some regional data on tourism spend and employment are available. The following tables provide data on both of these indicative measures for 2006.

Table 1 “Tourism Spend in Scotland by Region (Data is not Available at Local Authority Area Level)

Region	£ Million
	Overseas	Domestic	Total
Aberdeen and Grampian	123	253	376
Angus and City of Dundee	40	50	90
Argyll, Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and Trossachs	106	334	440
Ayrshire and Arran	53	103	156
Dumfries and Galloway	14	94	109
Edinburgh and Lothians	503	536	1039
Greater Glasgow and Cyde Valley	289	469	758
Highlands of Scotland	169	519	688
Kingdom of Fife	64	85	148
Perthshire	34	130	164
Scottish Borders	14	64	78
Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, Outer Hebrides	9	84	93
Unspecified (interviewee not sure of region)	20	0	20
Scotland	1439	2720	4160

Source “ VisitScotland.

Notes:

Domestic column is for tourism spend by UK residents.

Accuracy may be affected by data for some areas being based on very small sample sizes

Table 2 - Employee Jobs in Tourism 2006 by Local Authority Area

Area	Tourism Employee Jobs	Tourism Jobs as a Proportion of Total Employee Jobs
Scotland	218,200	9.2%
Aberdeen City	11,500	7.0%
Aberdeenshire	7,700	9.2%
Angus	3,600	10.2%
Argyll and Bute	6,000	15.6%
Clackmannanshire	1,100	8.2%
Dumfries and Galloway	6,700	11.5%
Dundee City	5,800	7.8%
East Ayrshire	3,100	7.8%
East Dunbartonshire	2,500	10.2%
East Lothian	3,200	12.5%
East Renfrewshire	2,000	11.5%
Edinburgh, City of	31,200	10.2%
Eilean Siar	900	7.3%
Falkirk	4,700	8.0%
Fife	12,400	9.2%
Glasgow City	31,100	7.9%
Highland	14,500	13.8%
Inverclyde	2,300	7.7%
Midlothian	2,000	7.2%
Moray	3,300	9.6%
North Ayrshire	4,700	11.6%
North Lanarkshire	8,100	6.4%
Orkney Islands	900	10.4%
Perthshire and Kinross	8,000	13.8%
Renfrewshire	5,800	7.4%
Scottish Borders	4,100	9.6%
Shetland Islands	1,300	10.3%
South Ayrshire	6,300	13.3%
South Lanarkshire	10,400	8.3%
Stirling	5,100	11.0%
West Dunbartonshire	3,400	10.5%
West Lothian	4,600	6.1%

Source: Annual Business Inquiry

Note: Tourism is defined as SIC codes 55.1-55.4, 63.3, 92.5-92.7.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency flood map shows an estimate of the areas of Scotland with a 0.5% or greater probability of being flooded in any given year “ in other words, those areas estimated to have a 1 in 200 or greater chance of being flooded in any given year. It provides an indication of areas likely to flood but is not appropriate for assessing risk to individual properties and cannot replace studies at a local scale. The presence of a development within the area shown on the flood map does not therefore mean it will flood nor that developers should be required to build sea defences.

Advice from Scottish Water is that there are currently around 600 households (out of around 2.2 million) which pay for their water and sewerage services on a metered basis.

The majority of households pay for these services by reference to the council tax band of the property, a result of which is that those occupying lower banded properties pay a correspondingly lower charge.

This is a matter for NHS Fife. The information is not held centrally.

This is a matter for NHS Fife. The information is not held centrally.

Sportscotland maintain a database of sporting facilities in Scotland that are open to the public and known to them. If a facility receives an award from sportscotland it is subject to regular monitoring to ensure that the terms of the award are met. If a facility is disposed of within the prescriptive period of the award (10 or 25 years depending on the level of the award) sportscotland will seek to recover all or part of the original award, or seek to have that value reinvested in similar facilities. The decision on whether a facility is to close is entirely a matter for the owners and operators of the facility.

The majority of dentists who provide NHS general dental services are independent contractors, i.e. private dentists. Most dentists provide a mix of both NHS and private treatment. A number of financial measures have been put in place over the last few years to recruit dentists to the NHS and to support those dentists who provide NHS treatment. Dentists providing mainly private treatment do not benefit from these allowances, or only receive a small proportion of an allowance, but can take steps to remedy this situation by providing more NHS treatment.

Good progress is being made and the Scottish Government has no plans to make a statement to the Parliament.

Selection and recruitment is well advanced in Scotland and the process closed to applications on 18 January. There were around 7,000 applications for around 1,300 posts at various Speciality Training and GP Training levels. Because candidates were able to make multiple applications, the applicant pool is around 6,000 junior doctors. This overall ratio of applications to vacancies is in line with our expectations and similar to that for the rest of the UK. Many applicants will have applied for posts elsewhere in the UK and abroad and it is expected that, as in previous years, the applicant pool in Scotland will continue to contract as selection proceeds. Details of the number of applications proceeding to short listing and vacancies per speciality are available on the MMC Scotland website at:

http://www.mmc.scot.nhs.uk/documents/MMCShortlistingStatistics-2008forMMCUpdatev2.pdf.

http://www.mmc.scot.nhs.uk/documents/FTSTANumberswithSTvacancies-AllScotland-forwebsite.pdf.

As always, some specialities are more popular than others with applications per post appearing high in comparison to the overall picture, but that is not unusual.

Applicants short-listed for interviews will be able to rank their speciality and deanery preferences in order (east, north, south east and west). Short-listing and interviewing is already well underway and offers of posts will be made in three waves from 26 March to16 April. This approach gives candidates who do not secure their first preference in the first wave continued opportunities to secure posts. NHS boards will offer formal contracts of employment from 1 May to 31 July, ensuring that successful candidates are in post in August with no disruption to service continuity.

Although the practicalities are challenging for all concerned, the process is being undertaken with the full support of all stakeholders, including the junior doctors themselves. There are no significant problems at present.