Gavin Strang (Former Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom)
Dates
- Creation: 1986 - 1999
Conditions Governing Access
Public access to these records is governed by UK data protection legislation, the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, and the latest version of the Scottish Government Records Management: Health and Social Care Code of Practice (Scotland). Whilst some records may be accessed freely by researchers, the aforementioned legislation and guidelines mean that records conveying sensitive information on named individuals may be closed to the public for a set time.
Where health records relate to named deceased adults, they will be open 75 years after the latest date referenced, on the next 1 January. Case records of individuals below 18 years of age or adults not proven to be deceased will be open 100 years after the latest date recorded, on the next 1 January. Further information on legislation and guidelines covering medical records can be found here: https://bit.ly/2CXB4V8.
LHSA encourages the use of these records for legitimate clinical, historical and genealogical research purposes, and records that are designated as closed can be consulted by legitimate researchers if certain conditions are met. Please contact the LHSA Archivist for more details regarding procedures on how you can apply for permission to view closed records. Telephone us on: 0131 650 3392 or email us at lhsa@ed.ac.uk.
Biographical / Historical
Gavin Strang was born in 1943 and grew up in rural Perthshire in Scotland. He attained both a BSc in Genetics and PHD in agricultural science from the University of Edinburgh.
He was first elected as an MP to the seat of Edinburgh east in 1970 and continued as an MP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh until his retirement in 2010. In 1986 he introduced a bill to parliament entitled the Aids (control) bill, which was enacted by the UK parliament in May 1987. The aims of the act included placing requirements on health boards and voluntary agencies to record and publish data on the number of new and existing cases of HIV and AIDS, to outline treatments and support services provided, and to undertake preventative publicity both with the wider public and targeted towards the most at-risk groups, such as gay men, intravenous drug users, contaminated blood dontation recipients, and sex workers.
The impact of AIDS and HIV in Gavin Strang’s constituency city of Edinburgh was particularly devastating, seven times higher than the national average, with around half of cases amongst gay men, with the remainder mainly made up by the city’s large number of heroin users and the common practice of sharing needles. This practice resulted in high numbers of HIV transmission, with at least 50% of injecting drug users in Edinburgh positive for the HIV virus. There were some 1500 known cases of HIV in Edinburgh by 1988, such that the city was labelled as the AIDS capital of Europe. Gavin Strang campaigned tirelessly both locally and in parliament for interventions to address HIV/AIDS, including the then controversial introduction of the provision of free clean hypodermic needles to drug users, as an urgent means to prevent or at least greatly reduce new cases of infection.
At his final appearance at Prime Ministers questions, he criticized Margaret Thatcher for her party’s policies harmful impacts on communities such as his own and her lack of compassion for those affected.
Full Extent
2 folders
Language of Materials
English
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Lothian Health Services Archive Repository
Centre for Research Collections
Edinburgh University Library
George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9LJ Scotland
+44 (0)131 650 3392
lhsa@ed.ac.uk