Gavin Strang served as Member of Parliament for the Labour Party for Edinburgh East from 1970 – 2010.  In Harold Wilson’s Government he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Energy (March – October 1974) and later Under-Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (October 1974 – May 1979) in James Callaghan’s government. From November 1992 to May 1997 he was Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and for 18 months following this period he was Minister of State for Transport until June 1998.

In the 1986 Parliamentary session, Gavin Strang introduced a Private Member’s Bill, the AIDS (Control) Bill. This was passed into law in May 1987 and became the AIDS (Control) Act.[1] The Act required each UK Health Board to publish a report annually on HIV and AIDS statistics and to include work that was done by each region’s health board, local authority and voluntary sector organisations on HIV and AIDS prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

In this 2016 interview, conducted by Louise Williams, Archivist of Lothian Health Services Archive (LHSA), Gavin Strang discusses the creation of his Bill, the Act and his insights during this critical period in the history of HIV and AIDS in Edinburgh and the UK in general.  

A time-stamped summary and a full transcription of this interview is available on request. Please contact LHSA: lhsa@ed.ac.uk