Chamber and committees

The mode oftransport by which ministers travel to and from ministerial engagements is notalways recorded, unless required for business purposes. The informationprovided is as complete as our records allow.

The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change hastravelled by foot and by public transport when making the journey to and from anumber of ministerial engagements in Edinburgh. Heintends to continue to do this, on a regular basis, as and when business andhis diary allows.

As at 1 August 2007, the minister has made 59 journeys by car. Thisfigure includes any private car hire and journeys where the car was shared withother ministers. He has made one journey by air.

When I spoke at the Scottish Pensioner’s Forum Annual Conference in June, I set out my commitment towork with local agencies to improve services and support for older people, in particularfor those in need. I have already confirmed that individual funding for free personalcare will be uprated in line with inflation next April.

When I met nationalorganisations representing older people last month I confirmed our commitment toestablish a National Forum on Ageing to ensure that older people have their viewsand concerns considered in how we improve national policy and local service deliveryin all parts of Scotland.

Data on the incidenceof coronary heart disease (CHD) at council level area are produced by InformationServices Division of NHS National Services Scotland and can be viewed at:http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/files/oct06_IC3.xls.

These data will beupdated in October 2007.

The West DunbartonshireCommunity Health Partnership is instituting a number of measures, in both the shortand long term, to reduce the incidence of myocardial infarction in its population,many of them linked to its status as a Wave 2 “Keep Well” area.

The increasing incidenceof cancer across Scotland was predicted in Cancer Scenarios, publishedby the Scottish Executive in 2001. While incidence is rising, but not as rapidlyas predicted in 2001, at the same time the death rate from cancer is going down.This means that more and more people are surviving after cancer. Currently, theindications are that we will meet the 2010 target of a 20 per cent reduction inthe cancer mortality rate in the under-75s. Figures show that since 1995 the ratehas decreased by 18.1 per cent.

The Scottish CancerStrategy, Cancer in Scotland: Action for Change, which is currently beingupdated, is a wide ranging plan to help control the burden of cancer in Scotland. As well as delivering more than 300 additional doctors,nurses and other health professionals and significant improvements in radiotherapyand other equipment and related services across all NHS boards, the plan was underpinnedby a health improvement strategy which has most recently seen the roll out of KeepWell projects in targeted areas across the country. In addition, when taken togetherthe ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces, information and education on prevention including lifestyle issues; developingsmoking cessation services, changing cultural attitudes to alcohol consumption andproviding better alternatives for people represent a comprehensive approach aimedat improving health across the board.

It was announced inFebruary 2007 that West Dunbartonshire will be one of the Community Health Partnershipsinvolved in Wave 2 of the Keep Well Programme. It is proposed that Glasgow and Clyde will be receiving £5 million over a two yearperiod to implement this and West Dunbartonshire will receive aproportion of this allocation. The aim of the Keep Well programme is to increasethe rate of health improvement (ages 45 to 64 years) with particular focus on earlyintervention by enhancing primarycare services in deprived communities to deliver anticipatory care. Health checksare therefore initially targeted at people with the highest risk of preventableill-health.

As a first step thisaim will be achieved through a risk assessment carried out by a health care practitionerat a patient Keep Well Health Check. Based on assessed need a range of NHS and non-NHStreatments, services and supports are provided thereafter. This may include interventionssuch as drug therapy, healthy eating advice, physical activity classes, smokingcessation support, alcohol interventions, benefits advice and assistance in gainingemployment. The outcomes of these interventions such as smoking cessation may helpto reduce the incidence of cancer.

The Scottish Governmentis considering its approach to tackling deprivation across Scotland in the context of the spending review. Specific measureswhich will make a positive contribution, such as health checks in schools and pilotingfree school meals for all primary 1 to 3 children, were set out in our Programmefor Scotland:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/09/05093403/0.

We will make furtherannouncements in due course.

Poor nutritional intakeand low levels of physical activity can have an impact on the incidence of diseasesof the digestive system. Tackling these in West Dunbartonshire is a matter for the Community Health Partnership(CHP) in the first instance.

A number of measureseither already exist or are being developed by the CHP to tackle these issues, asfollows:

the CHP makes a substantialcontribution to the provision of free fruit in schools for all primary school children,and offers a range of services to individuals, providing a range of specialist adviceand support around nutritional issues;

a number of NHS GreaterGlasgow and Clyde initiatives are currently being rolled outin West Dunbartonshire, including “Shape Up” (a diet and exerciseprogramme) and “Eat Up” (an eating programme specifically targeted at heart health).

through the “KeepWell” initiative, a community food worker is being appointed to target the hardest-to-reachgroups and offer opportunities to develop practical skills in cooking and shoppingfor healthy foods.

The planning and provisionof primary and community based health care services in Clydebank, Bearsden and Milngavie is a matter for the East and West DunbartonshireCommunity Health Partnerships (CHPs) within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Each CHP in Scotlandshould have in place a local delivery and development plan which it would have agreedwith its NHS board. This would have been based on an assessment of local need andinclude local priorities for action together with plans for service improvementto support these priorities.

CHPs have delegatedresponsibility and resources from their NHS board for all primary and communitybased health care services and are therefore accountable to their NHS board on howthese resources are used and the services provided.

The draft bill illustratesthe form that legislation could take to provide for a referendum for the questionposed. The government has not considered the detailed statutory instruments thatmight be made under the powers in the bill in the event of it passing into law.However, at a minimum a referendum would require provisions on the conduct of elections,form of ballot papers, and information to be returned to Scottish ministers similarto the provisions for the 1997 devolution referendum contained in Schedule 3 tothe Referendums (Scotland and Wales) Act 1997 (c. 61).

A number of officialswere involved in preparing Choosing Scotland’s Future as part of their normalduties. Information on the number of staff hours spent on preparing the documentis not available.

All uniformed officersare authorised to enforce road traffic laws, for example, seatbelts, mobile phonesand road traffic collisions and so the number of police officersinvolved in this activity will vary from day-to-day. The road policing units ofScotland’s eight forces have a total complement of841 officers, broken down as follows:

Central Scotland Police	43
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary	43
Grampian Police	84
Fife Constabulary	56
Lothian and Borders Police	155
Northern Constabulary	25
Strathclyde Police	364
Tayside Police	71