Chamber and committees

The Executive has a range of activities, over and above local initiatives by its partners, to address social injustice wherever it occurs in Scotland. In Ayrshire there are four Social Inclusion Partnerships (SIP), with the East Ayrshire Coalfields Area SIP in particular covering rural parts of the area. The SIP in Girvan also does outreach work to its surrounding rural communities and in North Ayrshire the SIP is moving on to take a more strategic look at exclusion across the area. Each partnership receives £60,000 from the Executive specifically for supporting community involvement and to build capacity and confidence in these excluded communities. We also have Kickstart, a programme to enhance the uptake of funding in our disadvantaged areas, by helping communities to help themselves.In addition, we have provided the Coalfields Regeneration Trust with £4.5 million over the last three years to support local activities in local coalfield communities, including those in Ayrshire. Communities Scotland is promoting and supporting a wider role for Registered Social Landlords, both in urban and in rural areas, through the provision of funding, information, advice and guidance.Scottish Rural Partnership Fund (SRPF), which is operated by an annual biding process, offers grant aid to rural communities to build community capacity and help communities to find local solutions to local problems. The closing date for applications to the 2002-03 round was 12 October 2001 and the bids received are currently being assessed. These include seven bids from the North, South and East Ayrshire areas combined. An announcement regarding successful projects will be made early in the New Year.

No. Some relevant research has, however, been carried out in the USA and, to a lesser extent, in the UK.

Requirements for the provision of drug information leaflets to patients are reserved matters which come under the remit of the Medicines Control Agency. Directive 92/27/EEC was incorporated into UK law by the Medicines (Marketing Authorisations etc) Regulations 1994 and the Scottish Executive supports its aim of ensuring that patients receive full and useful information. There is no formal procedure in place to measure compliance with these requirements in the NHS. Pharmacists are expected to comply with the requirements and standards laid down by their professional body, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.

There are currently no plans for measures in this area.

Information on the number of people arrested for contravening byelaws banning drinking in designated places is not centrally collected. The available information on the numbers of such offences recorded by the police is given in the table. In general, an offence will be recorded for each person arrested.Offences recorded by the police for contravening byelaws prohibiting the consumption of alcohol in designated places, 1998 to 2000

Area	1998	1999	2000
Strathclyde police force area	9,006	7,534	9,748
Argyll & Bute Council	104	92	191
East Ayrshire Council	273	266	207
East Dunbartonshire Council	162	115	227
East Renfrewshire Council	114	46	156
Glasgow City Council	3,818	3,355	5,359
Inverclyde Council	590	538	256
North Ayrshire Council	343	264	182
North Lanarkshire Council	1,622	916	947
Renfrewshire Council	381	403	319
South Ayrshire Council1	0	0	0
South Lanarkshire Council	1,388	1,387	1,737
West Dunbartonshire Council	211	152	167

Note:1. South Ayrshire Council has not introduced such byelaws.

I have now received a report from the Procurator Fiscal at Linlithgow into the circumstances of this case. Having considered this report I have decided to refer the case to the High Court of Justiciary in terms of section 123 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. This will enable the points of law raised by the case to be addressed by the High Court.

We have conducted extensive testing for foot-and-mouth disease of sheep flocks in all parts of Scotland, concentrating on Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders. All tests were negative and all of Scotland has been declared foot-and-mouth disease free. The current veterinary advice is that further testing in Scotland is not considered necessary.

The Executive has not provided funding to organisations for animal welfare purposes.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Farms in Ayrshire, as elsewhere in Scotland, benefit from public support through a wide range of schemes funded by the Scottish Executive and the European Commission. The Farm Business Development Scheme, for example, supports farmers with the development of additional income generating opportunities so strengthening the sustainability of the farming business. It is, of course, for each individual business to decide how to maximise their potential for prosperity. The Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture, published in July this year, set out a series of actions through which the farming industry could build a financially sustainable future, and the action which the Scottish Executive would take to support this.