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The consequentials on the full NHS (health) settlement in England are allocated to the Scottish Government on a total budget basis with no specific policies ring-fenced.

No decision has been made as yet about changes to laboratory services in the Clyde area.

The Scottish Government is committed to keeping NHS services as local as possible whilst recognising that patient safety and sustainable high quality care remain the priorities.

I expect all boards to plan and provide services in line with this commitment. Where changes to local services are proposed, the consideration must be fully informed by robust evidence and meaningful engagement with the appropriate stakeholders.

This is a matter for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The review of laboratory services in the Clyde area is at a very early stage and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde needs to undertake considerable further work and engagement with stakeholders before finalising robust options for formal consideration.

The consequentials on the full NHS (health) settlement in England are allocated to the Scottish Government on a total budget basis with no specific policies ring-fenced.

The number of undergraduate places available for medicine in 2010-11 and 2011-12 are as shown in Tables 1 and 2.

Medical Undergraduate Intake Targets

Table 1

Table 2

The Scottish Government is committed to reducing essential household costs for low income households via a range of measures, for example by:

Alleviating the effects of rising energy prices, through the Energy Assistance Package and Home Energy Hotline;

Working with partners through the Access and Affordability Expert Group to determine the evidence on food poverty in Scotland and to build a long term strategic programme for a stronger community food and health sector, in order to improve access to affordable and healthy food for vulnerable groups;

Extending free school meal criteria to all parents in receipt of qualifying benefits;

Committing to delivering an average 6000 affordable homes per year over the lifetime of this Parliament;

Continuing to reduce the essential costs of living through measures such as freezing council tax, and abolishing prescription charges, and

Analysing the impacts of changes to the welfare system on people in Scotland, making representations to the UK Government on these impacts, and working with stakeholders to contribute to, and influence the debate.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-753 on 24 June 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

No decision has been reached. The number of medical undergraduate places that will be required to match anticipated workforce demand from the NHS is currently under consideration by two working groups, involving key stakeholders, which will report to Scottish ministers by October 2011.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde commenced their review of laboratory services in the Clyde area at the end of May 2011.

Information on the number of people the NHS has employed in each year since 1999 is published on the NHS National Services Scotland, Information Services Division website at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Overall-Staff-and-Turnover/.