Chamber and committees

The New Deal for Disabled People will be extended nationally from July 2001 to all people claiming incapacity benefits which will offer new opportunities for people with mental health problems.The Disability Discrimination Act already protects people disabled by mental illness. The UK Government has asked the Disability Rights Commission to look at the Disability Discrimination Act's coverage of people with mental health problems and will consider carefully any recommendations for legislative change that the commission makes.The UK Government has announced its intention to end in 2004 the exemption of small firms from the Disability Discrimination Act employment provisions and, when legislative time allows, the exemption of many occupations and types of employment. This will ensure that employees or job applicants in those areas who are disabled with mental health problems are protected from discrimination.As an Executive we are committed to removing stigma and improving access to care and support. The Executive's Scottish Health Plan, Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change, announced a £4 million investment in a campaign to promote positive mental health. Consideration continues on the scope of that campaign.The Executive is also funding a project run by the Scottish Development Centre for Mental Health to examine ways in which people with mental health problems can be helped to return to and remain in employment.

There are a number of measures in place to ensure that, where clinically possible, GPs comply with the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) guidelines. Benzodiazepine prescribing by GPs is an area that is regularly reviewed by Health Board/Primary Care Trust Prescribing Advisers who receive monthly reports of prescribing data by GP practice. These reports can be used to monitor benzodiazepine prescribing. In addition, GP computer systems incorporate a reminder to alert GPs when a clinical review is recommended or required.Health professionals are reminded of the CSM guidelines in a boxed warning in the British National Formulary, issued free to doctors and pharmacists. Product information for benzodiazepines produced by the manufacturers, and authorised by the licensing authority, include warnings about duration of treatment.These measures are proving effective. There has been a steady reduction in the prescribing of benzodiazepines by GPs in Scotland from 2.3 million prescription items in 1991 to 1.7 million in 1999.Ultimately, the decision whether or not to prescribe benzodiazepines depends on the clinical judgement of the medical practitioner concerned, taking into account advice and evidence about their use. In some cases it may be clinically necessary for the GP to exceed the CSM prescribing guidelines, for example, in managing patients where benzodiazepine use is part of a wider drug misuse problem.

Meningitis in pigs can occasionally infect people and, since 1991, the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH) has received reports of four such cases.

It is for health boards/Primary Care Trusts to set, from their Unified Budget, prescribing budgets for Local Health Care Co-operatives on the basis of the need they identify in the local population. There is no evidence to suggest that differences in prescribing budgets between LHCCs adversely affect the health of patients. GPs have a duty to provide the necessary and appropriate treatment determined by patients' clinical need.The figures quoted in the Audit Scotland Local Health Care Co-operatives Bulletin are not standardised for age/sex distribution of population or adjusted in any other way to reflect local need.

Local Health Care Co-operatives have a vital role in working in partnership with other agencies and with patients/local communities to plan and deliver service improvements at a local level, and we will announce shortly proposals for strengthening the role of LHCCs.

The Scottish Executive is creating the new role of Public Health Practitioner in each Local Health Care Co-operative and in the Island Health Boards. The development of these new practitioners is being overseen by the Public Health Institute for Scotland as part of their role in developing the public health workforce. £3.6 million per annum has been made available from the Health Improvement Fund to fund these new posts.

Local Health Care Co-operatives (LHCCs) are established on a voluntary basis and their size reflects the perceived boundaries of their local community. We do not think there is a "right size". The guiding principle is whether LHCCs are able to develop and deliver services effectively to meet the needs of their communities.The LHCC Best Practice Group Report, published in April this year, highlighted that some LHCCs are more robust than others and that in some areas there is a need for more support from the local health care system for their further development. We will announce shortly proposals for strengthening the role of LHCCs in response to the Best Practice Group Report.

We have recently sought views on our proposals to address this issue in our consultation paper Better Care for all our futures, available from the Parliament's Reference Centre and the Scottish Executive website.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-14694.

I am advised by the Food Standards Agency that pig meat sold in Scotland will have been produced in accordance with the stringent provisions laid down in EU and domestic legislation intended to safeguard human health. These provisions demand veterinary inspection before slaughter to ensure animals are free of disease, as well as subsequent checks on careful handling and inspection of the carcass before it leaves the abattoir. There is, however, a risk at any point in the food chain that meat may become contaminated with harmful organisms. It is very important that there is good hygiene at all stages from the abattoir to the table and proper cooking of meat.