Chamber and committees

There is no central register of such services maintained by the Scottish Executive but the information is contained in the publication Alcohol Services in Scotland 1998-99' published by the Scottish Council on Alcohol, who we core-fund. A copy of the document is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib number 6729). The Scottish Advisory Council on Alcohol Misuse has commissioned local Alcohol Misuse Co-ordinating Committees to conduct an inventory of alcohol misuse services in their areas. This will inform the Committee's work on the development of guidance on the effective planning and provision of services.

For the first part of the question, I refer to the answer to Parliamentary Question S1W-7800. Health and social work professionals make referrals, preferably following joint assessment. Information about the sums currently made available by health boards and local authorities specifically for residential alcohol treatment is not available.

The report of the public local inquiry has not yet been submitted to the Scottish Ministers. When it is received, every effort will be made to issue a decision at the earliest possible opportunity.

The police report on the Scottish trial of CS incapacitant spray was published in November 1998. I am arranging for a copy of the report to be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

General Dental Practitioners are currently eligible for remuneration for their participation in various committees operated by the Scottish Executive, health boards and Trusts.

Dentists are able to make a positive contribution to the Scottish Executive's planning and strategy through their participation in various committees at both national and local levels.

The Scottish Executive and the Enterprise Network offer a wide range of schemes and initiatives to help companies address particular issues affecting their competitiveness. Scottish Enterprise is currently in discussion with the paper and timber industries in Scotland about the scope for a cluster-based strategy for the sector.

It would not be helpful in combating identity fraud to be too specific about the Scottish Administration's co-operation in this field with UK Government agencies and with those responsible for law-enforcement north and south of the Border, nor about the new counter-measures being put in place.

However, the General Register Office for Scotland this spring made available to the UK Passport Agency in electronic format a substantial subset of linked birth and death records in certain categories mainly at risk of being used for identity fraud, and they plan during summer 2000 to complete the linking of records in these high-risk categories.

It is worth reiterating that an entry in the Register of Births is the public record of an event. Anyone can obtain an official extract of this record on payment of the statutory fee. A birth certificate is therefore simply an official record of the birth-event in portable form on paper. It is NOT an identity document and in particular tells one nothing about the person bearing or presenting it. It is up to the persons or bodies asking to see a birth certificate to assess its value in terms of their own checking procedure.

In the case of the UK Passport Agency, the birth certificate has value in assessing a claim to British nationality, but for identity purposes an applicant is required to submit a recent photograph signed by a counter-signatory who knows him. Counter-signatories are people whose bona fides can be checked - and who have something to lose if applications endorsed by them are discovered to be bogus.

Underage pregnancies are not on a steep rate of increase. Nevertheless they are too high. The Executive is taking forward a range of measures to reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy and to meet the commitments set out in Towards a Healthier Scotland. As part of our effort, the Executive is committed to the provision of effective and appropriate sex education for all of our young people.

In 1998-99, Gay Men's Health received funding of £101,146 from Lothian Health Board in support of its work to promote sexual health, including HIV prevention, among gay men.