What advice it will give to retailers on preventing any potential fraud following the introduction of the euro in other European countries …

Retailers will wish to note the excellent advice that is available from the Bank of England and the European Central Bank (ECB) on this issue.The Bank of England has run a series of counterfeit detection training sessions for a number of organizations, including representatives of the British Retail Consortium (BRC). The ECB has produced a training kit on the security features of the euro notes and there is information on the ECB website on the security features of the notes and images of all the coins. The ECB training kits have been supplied to those members of the BRC who indicated that they would accept euros. These tended to be larger retailers.In addition, the BRC have issued 5,000 leaflets to their members, mainly smaller retailers, entitled "A retailers guide to accepting the Euro as a foreign currency".Scotland Europa, in conjunction with HM Treasury, is implementing a detailed programme, including workshops, conferences, publications and a telephone hotline to provide advice to Scottish businesses and raise awareness of the need to make appropriate preparations.