Chamber and committees

Young people's drinking is increasing. In the latest survey 23% of 13-year-olds and 46% of 15-year-olds reported that they had drunk alcohol in the previous week. This upward trend is very worrying and reducing harmful drinking by children and young people is one of the key priorities of the Plan for Action on alcohol problems.There are currently no targets for reducing binge drinking and alcohol-related deaths.

It is expected the review will be completed early in 2003. A decision on the timing of publication will be taken when ministers have seen the report.

Good progress is being made in delivering the Plan for Action on alcohol problems. Key Executive action to date includes:Launch of a national communications strategy to target male and female binge drinkers.Additional funding for local alcohol action teams to build capacity for local delivery of the plan.Development of a national alcohol information resource to benefit those who plan and provide alcohol problems services.Appointment of national alcohol liaison officer to support the work of local alcohol action teams.Publication of an alcohol problems support and treatment services framework to help local areas assess needs and plan to meet these needs.Guidance for alcohol action teams on what should be included in local alcohol action plans.

The Executive is aware of the recent announcement in Northern Ireland. Digital hearing aids are already included within the wide range of hearing aids available on the central contracts arranged by Scottish Healthcare Supplies for the NHSScotland. The decision on which type of hearing aid best meets the clinical need of individual patients is for the clinician in charge of their care.The final report of the review of audiology services commissioned to establish the extent to which audiology services in Scotland need to be modernised and improved is currently under consideration.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-32152 on 16 December 2002. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

In the period 2000-03 the Executive has provided £99,000 for training to organisations in the voluntary sector that specifically support carers. Over the same period we have also provided £500,000 to voluntary sector bodies to help implement the Carers Strategy, including the development of carer-related training tools. The Executive also provides substantial resources to local authorities and the voluntary sector to support carers, and some of these resources will be used for training purposes.

The First Minister and I visited Dundee on 10 December to announce details of the launch of three Intermediary Technology Institutes. These institutes will operate in the fields of energy, life sciences and communications technology and digital media and will be located in Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow respectively. The intention is that the energy and life sciences institutes will launch in autumn 2003 with communications technology and digital media set to be launched in spring 2004.

The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) makes available the public records of Scotland. I have asked George MacKenzie, Keeper of the Records of Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:In addition to the public access provided by the search rooms at West Register House and General Register House, Edinburgh, by spring 2003, all the NAS catalogues will be available for searching on the NAS website.Over the course of the Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) project (scheduled to finish in 2003), access is opening up to Scottish Archives, their catalogues and contents. In particular:Conversion of the top level catalogues of more than 50 Scottish archives into electronic format, made available via the internet, allowing users to find which records are held where in Scotland;Provision of other online resources for access to the written history of Scotland - including exhibitions, research tools, bookshop and discussion forum on history and archives, andMaking a major historical resource, the wills and testaments of Scots from 1500-1901, available to researchers world-wide (now available at www.scottishdocuments.com).

Both undergraduate and postgraduate dental education in Scotland offers training in the provision of smoking cessation advice. Training focuses on the role of smoking in oral disease, the role of the dental team in smoking cessation, and the dentist's role in the provision of smoking cessation advice as part of the wider primary care team. All NHS boards presently run optional training courses for health professionals, including dentists, on providing smoking cessation advice to patients. Earlier this year the Scottish Executive established a Partnership for Action on Tobacco and Health (PATH) with funding of £1.5 million over three years. PATH will develop national training standards for delivering smoking cessation training for NHS boards and identify best practice in smoking prevention and cessation for dissemination to health care professionals.

The consultation paper Safer Landfill, published on 29 August, included draft Regulations to implement EC Directive 1999/31/EC on the Landfill of Waste. The consultation period ended on 22 November 2002. We are now considering responses and will shortly lay the regulations.