However, the Scottish Executive research report Future Patterns Of Retailing In Scotland indicates that, as part of the extensive structural changes in retailing, there has been a reduction in the total number of shops in Scotland, from approximately 30,000 in the 1980s to an estimated 22,500 in 2000.Copies of NPPG8 and Future Patterns Of Retailing In Scotland have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. numbers 1081 and 35511 respectively).