Newbie needing some advice!

Hello all, ima newbie here looking for a bit of advice about my A3 sportback. basically its an 05 reg 1.6 fsi (and much loved!) at the weekend my emission control system light came on. the car appears to be running fine in my opinion. ive run a full scan using VAG-COM of the car but its not diagnosing anything. im totally skint so would like to avoid a trip to the garage if at all possible. has anyone else exprienced this or have any tips as to what i could check before resorting to a garage trip? ive not driven the car since sunday as didnt want to risk anything.
thanks
H

ooh thanks for your help, your right about the short journeys i work from home so the car only really gets used to run the kids round in the day time. i took it for a proper long journey on sunday (when we noticed the light) somight give it another blast tomorrow when im child free see if it helps. im reasnonably confident with cars but its 'him indoors who does most of the work! this is the first car weve owned that requires a computer link, the rest are all classics and relativly easy to diagnose problems with!
H