Chamber and committees

I am advised that the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is active in communicating with consumers and stakeholders on matters concerning GM foods. The FSA website contains detailed information about GM foods, including how GM foods are assessed for safety and explaining the current labelling rules for GM foods. A factsheet has also been produced to provide comprehensive background information on GM foods.The FSA is also exploring ways of further involving the public in issues relating to GM foods. It has held two meetings, including one in Scotland, with interested parties to discuss European Commission proposals concerning the traceability and labelling of GMOs and GM food and animal feed. Interested parties will be updated as negotiations progress.I am also advised that, as the FSA does not regulate GM crop trials and that material from these trials is not harvested for use in the food or feed chain, the FSA does not have a role in informing consumers or stakeholders about these matters. This would be a matter for SEERAD.

Detailed action to prevent suicide in specific parts of Scotland is a matter for the relevant NHS board. The Executive is also currently developing a National Framework for Prevention of Suicide and Self-Harm, which I plan to launch later this year. All NHS boards and local authorities will require to take account of the broad parameters of the framework, although the detailed approach for each area of the country will remain a matter for individual authorities.

We are currently developing a National Framework for Prevention of Suicide and Self-Harm in Scotland. I published a consultation draft of the Framework in October 2001. A report analysing consultation responses, together with supporting materials, was published on 31 July 2002. We are now developing a final version of the framework, with a view to publishing later this year.

Primary care teams and local health care co-operatives have an important role in developing systems to deliver national and local standards in mental health in primary care. A number of measures are in place to support the provision of services in primary care for patients who experience mental health problems. For example, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Support Group was established in March 2000 to offer advice locally and to the Scottish Executive on solutions and best practice in the implementation of the Framework for Mental Health Services in Scotland and the priorities in the health plan - Our National Health. Developing capacity and improving access and the range of services available to patients are major components of investment and reform in primary care, including £12 million in 2002-03 as part of a £30 million package over three years. The Primary Care Modernisation Group has recently made a number of recommendations in its report Making the Connections - Developing Best Practice into Common Practice, in relation to the management of mild to moderate mental health in primary care, which NHS boards are expected to address.

Neither the Scottish Executive nor the Care Commission can intervene in a private contractual arrangement between a self-funding client and a care home provider.

Local authorities have a statutory obligation to provide community care services to those people in their areas who appear to need them. Should local authorities fail to provide such services, they will ultimately be accountable to the courts.We are continuing to provide authorities with the resources, direction and support to meet their statutory obligations with regard to community care.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-27425. I would add that service-users, or carers acting on their behalf, can challenge service provision decisions taken by a local authority using the authority's complaints procedure. This could involve taking the complaint to the council's Complaints Review Committee, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman or ultimately through the courts.

HM Customs and Excise work with Scottish police forces, the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency and the National Criminal Intelligence Service to provide a co-ordinated partnership approach to tackling drug trafficking in Scotland.HM Customs' presence on Orkney is entirely an operational matter for that organisation. I understand that Northern Constabulary does not consider that HM Customs' arrangements adversely affect its ability to combat actual drug misuse on Orkney itself. It believes it has an excellent working relationship with the organisation.

The Scottish School of Primary Care (SSPC) is concerned with developing research that can be used to support patients, clinicians and managers when they make decisions about health and health care. Much of the school's work in relation to coronary heart disease (CHD) is focused on tackling health inequalities and the effects of deprivation. This supports the Executive's social justice agenda, and will be reflected in our national strategy for CHD and stroke.The school is undertaking the evaluation of the cardiac services Managed Clinical Network (MCNs) in Dumfries and Galloway, and this will help to roll out these local MCNs across Scotland as a whole.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-27268.