- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Monday, 14 August 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 4 September 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-7270 by Henry McLeish on 13 June 2000, which career service companies are involved in the project work on tackling stereotype images with primary six and seven children.
Answer
Lanarkshire Careers Service and Tayside Careers Ltd.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Friday, 28 July 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 18 August 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to issue any health warnings on the use of mobile phones.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is in discussions with other Government Departments and industry on how best to take forward the main recommendations of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones.
The Executive is consulting with other Government Departments on the production of a joint leaflet which will provide information for the consumer to make choices about their use of new mobile phone technologies. It will be available later in the year.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Friday, 28 July 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 18 August 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to commission any medical research on the safety of mobile phones and their use by children.
Answer
I refer the Member to the answer I gave to question S1W-8604 on 21 July 2000.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Friday, 21 July 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 10 August 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what action is planned to protect farmers from any long-term harm to their crops from GM pollution.
Answer
It is a priority of the Scottish Executive to ensure that genetically modified crops and foods do not endanger human health or the environment. Before GM crops and foods can be approved for marketing or wider commercial use they must be rigorously assessed for safety.
This is an issue with an international dimension and the rigorous regulatory regime which we have in place at European level is designed to protect human health and the environment while simultaneously providing a strategic framework for the development of GM technology. This technology could bring significant benefits; not least in the field of medical biotechnology, where Scottish science is in a leading position. However, the technology will only be given the opportunity to demonstrate its potential within the security which the science-based regulatory regime provides for us.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Friday, 21 July 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 10 August 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to safeguard the economy from any effects of GM pollution.
Answer
I refer to my answer to question S1W-8817.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Monday, 22 May 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the Historic Scotland grant of #3.6 million for the Merchant City in Glasgow will be spent on the Saltmarket area.
Answer
Historic Scotland has not awarded a grant of £3.6 million for the Merchant City in Glasgow. The Heritage Lottery Fund earlier this year announced an award of £1.6 million, under the Fund's Townscape Heritage Initiative, for a pilot project to assist the upgrading and improvement of buildings within the historic centre of Glasgow. It is for Glasgow City Council and Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, being formal partners with the Fund and providing a matching contribution, to determine the content of the five-year programme of work. Historic Scotland may be approached for top-up funding for buildings which meet the criteria for an award under the agency's Historic Buildings Repair Grants Scheme.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 25 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have contracted lung cancer through smoking in the last year for which figures are available in (a) Scotland, (b) Glasgow and (c) Glasgow Kelvin.
Answer
The exact number of people contracting cancer as a direct result of smoking is unknown. The numbers of lung cancer cases diagnosed during 1996 and 1997 in the areas of interest are as follows:
| Year of diagnosis |
| 1996 | 1997* |
| Scotland | 4,855 | 4,519 |
| Greater Glasgow Health Board | 1,144 | 1,006 |
| Glasgow Kelvin Parliamentary constituency | 75 | 71 |
* Data for 1997 is provisional.
It is expected that 80-90% of these cancers will have been caused by smoking.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 25 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what is the estimated number of young people who smoke in (a) Scotland, (b) Glasgow and (c) Glasgow Kelvin.
Answer
Current estimates would suggest that about 12% of under 16's in Scotland are regular smokers with a further 9% occasional smokers (source: Office for National Statistics, "Smoking, drinking and drug use among young teenagers in 1998", Volume 2: Scotland).
No information is available on Glasgow Kelvin.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 20 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what action has been taken following the White Paper on Tobacco.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is committed to reducing the levels of smoking by people in Scotland. The White Paper Smoking Kills outlines a comprehensive range of measures which we are now taking forward. These include health education and promotion activity; improvement on enforcement measures relating to underage sales; a Voluntary Charter on Smoking in Public Places; allocation of funding to health boards to spend on smoking cessation services and nicotine replacement therapy, and legislation to ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 19 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual cost is to Greater Glasgow Health Board of smoking related illnesses.
Answer
The information is not held centrally. The precise cost of smoking related disease is difficult to ascertain, since cost data collected centrally from the National Health Service in Scotland cannot be attributed to individual disease. However, a report on hospital care for smoking related diseases in Greater Glasgow Health Board in 1992 estimated the cost of treatment at £14.4 million. Adjusted for inflation this equates to some £18 million in today's prices. This does not take into account costs associated with community nursing services, prescribing drugs in the community and GP services. (ASH Scotland/HEBS: The Smoking Epidemic: Counting the Cost in Scotland.)
