§ Mrs. Margaret EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland on how many occasions in the past five years Scottish district or regional councils have used the provisions of the Public Health (Scotland) Act 1897 to serve notice on landowners to remove a nuisance, or to recoup losses for the removal of a nuisance from privately owned land; and, of these, how many are related to the removal of Heracleum Mantegazzianum.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonNo record of local authorities' use of these powers is held centrally.
§ Mrs. Margaret EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many recorded incidents there have been in the last five years of the hospitalisation of patients who have come into contact with the furocoumarins released by Heracleum Mantegazzianum.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythInformation on the number of patients admitted to hospital suffering from the effects of Heracleum Mantegazzianum (giant hogweed) is not collected centrally.
§ Mrs. Margaret EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list in theOfficial Report the origin and number of representations he has received in the last 12 months about problems created by Heracleum Mantegazzianum.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonSix such representations have been received—three from Moray and one each from Edinburgh, Kyle and Carrick and Nithsdale.
§ Mrs. Margaret EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many prosecutions there have been in each of the years since 1981 under section 14(2) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act against landowners who have planted or caused to grow in the wild a plant listed in schedule 9 of that Act; and whether any of these prosecutions related to Heracleum Mantegazzianum.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe information requested is not separately identifiable within the Scottish Home and Health Department's classification of crimes and offences.