Chamber and committees

An expert group,under the Chairmanship of Professor Hugh Pennington, was established inDecember 1996 to examine the circumstances which led to the e.coli outbreak incentral Scotland and to advise on the implications for food safety and lessonsto be learned. This group made a total of 32 recommendations, all of which wereaccepted and actioned by the Scottish Government.

The group’srecommendations focussed mainly on improving hygiene standards andstrengthening enforcement controls in fresh meat plants and butcher shops. Therewere also recommendations around consumer education and awareness, improvingsurveillance methods, research and outbreak management.

A leafletentitled Shedding Light on Ecoli 0157 – What you need to know wasproduced by the Scottish Government in 2005 to raise awareness and give adviceto those visiting the outdoors and enjoying outdoor activities such as farmsand petting zoos. The document is available electronically on the dedicatedwebsite www.handsclean.info/ and isdistributed once a year to a range of interested parties such as Directors ofPublic Health, Scouts and Girl Guides and outdoor organisations.

The ScottishGovernment also continues to promote a Hand Hygiene Campaign to ensure that allhealth workers, the general public and young children are made aware of theimportance of good hand washing in preventing the spread of infection.

I refer themember to the answer to question S3W-4108 on 19 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can befound at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Non-departmentalpublic body annual reports and accounts also provide cost information. Copiesare available directly from individual organisations.

The informationrequested is only collected at council level. The West of Scotland regionalconstituency does not match an exact aggregation of whole council areas.

The following tablecontains 2004-05 and 2005-06 revenue and capital expenditure for each of thelocal authorities covered by the constituency. Councils which are only partlycovered by the constituency are noted by an asterisk.

LocalAuthority Expenditure of Local Authorities Covered Wholly or Partly* by West ofScotland Regional Constituency

Local Authority	Net Revenue Expenditure 1		Gross Capital Expenditure
	2004-05	2005-06	2004-05	2005-06
Argyll and Bute*	197,401	220,834	32,673	37,719
East Dunbartonshire*	186,049	205,050	13,990	19,043
East Renfrewshire	165,397	179,479	15,691	21,045
Inverclyde	174,868	199,085	14,789	21,792
North Ayrshire*	245,404	292,333	24,753	46,371
Renfrewshire*	309,942	349,563	37,161	50,581
West Dunbartonshire	194,726	203,470	31,561	33,945

Sources: Councilscovered wholly or partly* by West of Scotland regional constituency. Capital -CR FINAL returns.

Note: 1.Expenditure on police, fire, registration of electors and council tax andnon-domestic lands valuation is apportioned to councils using the amount thatthe joint boards requisition from them.

The ScottishGovernment has had many meetings with the EU since May 2007. Focusing on ministerialmeetings, the First Minister met European Commissioners Borg (Fisheries andMaritime Affairs), Grybauskaite (Budget), Mandelson (Trade) and McCreevy(Internal Market and Services) when visiting Brussels on 11 July. He discusseda range of Scottish interests in relation to each of the Commissionersportfolios.

He also met withCommissioner Piebalgs (Energy) in Edinburgh on 19 Julywhere carbon capture and storage projects, renewable energy targets and otherenergy issues were discussed.

The CabinetSecretary for Education and Lifelong Learning and I met with Commissioner Figel(Education) on 28 June where we discussed higher education issues, the EuropeanInstitute of Technology and the Erasmus programme.

Richard Lochhead,along with the EU Commission, Ministers and representatives from all the other memberstates, attended the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Luxembourg on 11-12June where the main issues on the agenda were: reform of the fruit andvegetables sector, rules on organic production and labelling, a single CommonMarket Organisation, recovery plans for Baltic cod, for blue fin tuna and forEuropean eel, and the Greenland fisheries partnership.

Finally, this isnot the appropriate forum for me to list each of the many meetings thatScottish Government officials have had with the EU Institutions since May. However,I will say that Scottish Government officials, from our EU Office in Brussels,and from Scotland, frequently attend working group meetings in the Council of the EU as well as management committees chaired by the Commission.

Officials alsoattend meetings in the European Parliament and have discussions with EuropeanCommission officials on issues of importance to Scotland, particularly in relation to fisheries, agriculture, justice,structural funds, energy and environment matters.

This outbreakwas a matter for the local health board. The outbreak in Paisley was therefore investigated andmanaged by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in close collaboration with Environmental Health, the Food StandardsAgency, Health Protection Scotland and the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service.The Scottish Government was inclose communication with the local Board and Health Protection Scotland throughoutthe incident.

Once the outbreakis declared over the health board will follow up its own investigations with a report.

I referthe member to the answer to question S3W-2934 on 23 August 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.