External evaluation of the Healthy Living Centre (HLC) programme is being conducted at two levels. New Opportunities Fund (NOF) has commissioned the Bridge Consortium to undertake a UK-wide evaluation and the Scottish Executive Health Department has commissioned the Research Unit in Health and Behavioural Change (RUHBC) and the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, both within Edinburgh University, to conduct an independent evaluation of the HLC programme in Scotland.It is also a condition of funding that HLCs themselves undertake self-evaluation to monitor progress towards the fulfilment of key pre-defined outcomes which relate both to the local community and to those who use the facilities and resources provided by the HLC.