Their role will be to facilitate local priority-setting and planning by monitoring disease patterns and trends at local level; to analyse data to give early warning of emerging health problems and changes in health trends, and to evaluate the impact of local actions and assess the effectiveness of local agencies in improving health and tackling health inequalities. In Scotland the forthcoming creation of the Public Health Institute, which was proposed as part of the review of the Public Health Function, will contribute to the development and co-ordination of the efforts of the organisations already working on such issues.