Chamber and committees

It is vital that Scotland’s emergencyservices and other organisations with responsibilities for dealing with civil contingenciesare properly prepared to deal with such incidents. A great deal of work has alreadybeen done, flowing from the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, to ensure that appropriateprocedures are in place to respond to a range of risks and I commend the contributionmade by the emergency planning community. But in the light of the terrorist attackson London in July 2005 and other recent emergencies, it is right that we should takestock of Scotland’s ability to respond to simultaneous major incidents,particularly those which occur across administrative borders or require a multi-agencyresponse.

The review will be conductedby officials from my department and HM Chief Inspector of Fire Services Jeff Ord.It will be consultative and wide-ranging: the review team will hold discussionswith all key stakeholders over the coming months and report to ministers in thesummer of 2007. In the context of assessing overall preparedness, the review willconsider the potential for increased collaboration between the emergency servicesand other responders, the lessons learned from the London bombingsof July 2005, and the future of fire control rooms. I am today publishing two documentswhich stakeholders will be asked to consider and discuss with the review team: areport by HM Chief Inspector of Fire Services on the preparedness of the Fire andRescue Service to deal with simultaneous terrorist attacks like those in London,and an analysis by my officials of the main concerns expressed by respondents toour 2004 consultation exercise on the future of fire control rooms. Both documentsare available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers 39661and 39662) and on the Scottish Executive website at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/05/18155955and www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/05/18155521.

The Action Plan for improvingoral health and modernising NHS DentalServices in Scotland was published in March 2005. This document outlined themain preventive actions towards improving oral health of children in Scotland, includingdiet, oral care and toothbrushing with a fluoride toothpaste.

A range of preventive programmesare in place to address tooth decay among primary school children in Glasgow, includingtooth brushing in nursery and primary schools and the distribution of preventivepacks to children on starting school.

Dental programmes are linkedto health promoting programmes such as Hungry for Success, Health Promoting Schools and pre-schoolpromotion of healthy foods and drinks.

Towards Better Oral Healthin Children, a consultation publishedby the Scottish Executive in September 2002, set out the main determinants of oralhealth of children in Scotland. The consultation identified the main cause of dentaldecay as the high sugar diet consumed by Scottish children. It also sought viewson how to enhance preventive treatments, the promotion and practice of healthy eatingand ways of using fluoride.

The Executive has put in placea range of measures to address tooth decay in young children through An ActionPlan for improving oral health and modernising NHS Dental Services in Scotlandlaunched in March 2005.

Initiatives include: the distributionof preventive dental packs to every child under 12 months, to infants aged oneto three years in areas of deprivation and to every child starting nursery and primaryschool, and a programme of daily toothbrushing with a fluoride toothpaste in nurseriesand targeted primary schools.

We also support a range of healthyeating and healthy drinks initiatives targeted at children and parents.

These measures are further complementedby two national demonstration programmes in the East and West of Scotland, whichprovide more intensive support for children at highest risk of dental decay.

The creation of a new streetprostitution related offence is only one aspect of the Executive’s policy onstreet prostitution.

The new offence will focuson the nuisance or offence caused by street prostitution related activity,whether caused by the purchaser or the seller.

In addition, we havecommitted to produce guidance for local authorities and their communityplanning partners on how they should address street prostitution within thecontext of an overarching approach to tackling violence against women and ofbuilding safer stronger communities. The guidance will outline how they shouldtackle the demand for prostitution, prevent vulnerable individuals frombecoming involved in prostitution, reduce the harm to those who are involved,assist those ready to leave prostitution to do so, and ensure the safety oflocal communities.

I refer the member to thequestion S2W-23947, answered on 21 March 2006. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to thequestion S2W-23947, answered on 21 March 2006. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa/search.

I refer the member to thequestion S2W-23947, answered on 21 March 2006. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The principal measure of economicgrowth is the Gross Value Added (Gross Domestic Product at basic prices) seriesfor Scotland published on a quarterly basis by the Scottish Executive.This publication provides measures of activity in real terms for the Scottish economyas a whole, presented as indices, in addition to a more detailed breakdown of theeconomic performance of industrial sectors within the Scottish economy. Economicgrowth is determined by calculating the rates of change of the activity indices.

The data sources used in thecompilation of the GDP series are varied. In the majority of cases, data collectedby the Office for National Statistics relating to the activities of a sample ofbusinesses located in Scotland are used. These data provide up to date measures of turnoverwhich are deflated (to remove the effect of price changes) and, in some cases, seasonallyadjusted to yield the true underlying growth rates.

For some industrial sectors,notably agriculture, electricity generation, banking and public administration,the estimates are based on information received directly from companies, industrybodies or other Government Departments.

Further information on the compilationof the quarterly GDP statistics is available on the Scottish Executive website http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/18879/GDPCalc.