Credit unions can act eitheras money advisers or payment distributors for the purpose of the scheme if theymeet the criteria and are approved. The Executive is aware that some credit unionsare already actively involved in debt advice or have payment distribution services.In recognition of this, and in response to representations made by credit unions,the regulations setting out the detail of the scheme were specifically framed insuch a way as to ensure that credit unions were not excluded.

The Scottish Executive has no plans to issue any general guidance to councillors or council officersparticipating in governing boards or managing committees of organisations whichreceive funds from local authorities.

Councillors are, however, boundby the statutory Code of Conduct for Councillors when representing the council onexternal bodies. The Standards Commission is responsible for overseeing observanceof the code which includes issuing guidance and advice on all aspects of the code.The conditions of service of local authority employees are a matter for individuallocal authorities. 

The new out-of-hours services must meet new mandatory accreditation standards drawn up by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland to ensure delivery of a safe, qualityservice.

NHS boards envisage an integrated, multi-professional team-based approach to ensure that patients will receive an appropriate service responsive to their individual needs.

These arrangements will also benefit patients by relieving GPs of the burden of continuous out-of-hours responsibility, enabling them to provide a better service overall for their patients.

The reportsof scrutiny bodies, particularly the Accounts Commission, and this year’s statutoryperformance indicators show further improvement in the performance of local government.We are constantly striving for continuous improvement across the public sectorwhich is why we continue to work with local authorities on achieving best valueand the sharing of good practice.

The impact of this proposal onlandscape and tourism will be fully considered. Schedule 3 of the Electricity Works(Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2000 outline in full what factors ministers should consider when arriving at adetermination.

Wind farm developments with acapacity in excess of 50MW require consent under s.36 of the Electricity Act 1989following consultation with, among others, the National Park Authorities.

Wind farms with a capacity of50MW or less require planning permission. Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authorityis responsible for determining applications for planning permission within its area.Applications for planning permission within the Cairngorms National Parkare submitted in the first instance to the relevant local authority with the CairngormsNational Park Authority having powers to call in applications for its determination.

All overhead lines are subjectto consent under section 37 of the Electricity Act 1989 and are subject to determinationby ministers in consultation with interested parties..

I refer the member to the answergiven to question S2W-7224 on 20 April2004. It would be inappropriate to anticipatethe outcome of the consultation process. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

Through Choose Life, the Executive’snational strategy and action plan to prevent suicide in Scotland, weare in the process of establishing a clinical advice network. Part of the remitof this network will be to review what data would be useful to inform work on suicideprevention and intervention activity; this work will include consideration of theappropriateness and practicability of collating information on the number of suicideattempts by patients in psychiatric hospitals and units.

In terms of the National HealthService (General Medical Services Contracts) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 immediatelynecessary treatment must be provided on request to any person as a result of anaccident or emergency at any place within the practice area within core hours.

Where the general practitioneris providing treatment within a contract where responsibility for out of hours serviceshas been retained the requirement to provide immediately necessary treatment appliesto that period.

The expected application forthe construction of the Beauly to Denny transmission line upgrade will be subjectto wide ranging consultation during which the potential environmental and wider impactswill be subject to careful consideration.