Nine out of ten people in Scotland say they would recycle waste like paper and glass if local councils set up doorstep collection services. The finding is one of the results of the largest ever survey of public attitudes to environmental issues in Scotland. The study, funded by Scottish Executive in conjunction with Scottish Natural Heritage and the Forestry Commission, questioned more than 4,000 people to gauge opinions on a number of environmental topics.The main report of the study will be published early next year but key findings include the fact that while between four and five out of ten people currently recycle glass and paper, almost nine out of ten said they would do so with a doorstep collection service. Seventy per cent of people think water in most rivers and lochs in Scotland is good or very good quality and eight out of ten are satisfied with the quality of their tap water. Raw sewage put into the sea and nuclear waste are issues about which the Scottish public are most concerned.

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An increase in so-called ‘golden hello’ payments to family doctors of up to 12,000 pounds has been announced to improve recruitment and retention of doctors, consultants and GPs in the NHS.The increase is included in a package of measures launched by the Health Minister John Hutton. The payments were first introduced in April 2001 and since then more than 1700 have been made. It is hoped that the extension of the scheme to GPs who return to practice and the increase in the maximum payment up to 12,000 pounds in areas in most need of doctors areas will boost recruitment.

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This report by the Strategy Unit in the Cabinet Office sets out formal measures to ensure that good practice is adopted widely across the public sector. Risk management is seen as the art of getting the right balance between innovation and change on the one hand, and avoidance of shocks and crises on the other. It is now central to the business of good government. The report recommends that the quality of risk handling across government should be improved through a two-year programme of change, linked to the Spending Review, and clearly set in the context of public sector reform and the Departmental Change Programme. A consultation programme on the report has been launched.The Risk report is available on the Strategy Unit website http://www.strategy.gov.uk

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