Chamber and committees

NHS Greater Glasgow and NHS Lanarkshire today commenced a three month consultation exercise on this proposal. I am informed by NHS Greater Glasgow that the Golden Jubilee National Hospital proposal enables them to accelerate the siting of Cardiothoracic surgery on a single site as proposed in the Acute Services Review. This proposal will bring this forward by around five years.

I am advised by NHS Greater Glasgow that the NHS board will consider a report on the review of the assumptions that underpinned the decision on accident and emergency services in the near future.

The Executive is encouraging the public to participate in the Woodland Trust Christmas Card Recycling Scheme 2005 and collection bins are available in WH Smith and Tesco stores.

Many local authorities have organised special arrangements for Christmas trees or will accept these and cards, wrapping paper and packaging as part of kerbside recycling schemes.

The savings made from the erection of ticket barriers will reduce the subsidy required by the franchisee. As part of the franchise agreement there are significant proposals to improve Scotland’s railway stations.

The data requested is not available centrally to this level of detail.

Acting on behalf of the Scottish Executive, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council sets the number of funded student places available to each medical school in Scotland. Within this allocation our universities are, as autonomous bodies, responsible for determining their own admissions criteria.

Our medical schools are considering the implications of the recommendations on university admission and selection set out in Sir Kenneth Calman’s Review of Basic Medical Education in Scotland. I will respond to Sir Kenneth’s Report in due course.

I expect to receive the Expert Group on Prostitution’s report before the end of this year.

The Housing Improvement Task Force made recommendations about the ways in which local authorities should be able to assist people who have difficulty in carrying out necessary repairs and improvements to their homes. One option proposed was that where a person had a low income and a high level of equity in a property, an equity loan could fund such works. We are currently considering, in the light of the response to the consultation paper Maintaining Houses, Preserving Homes, whether and how to make provision in the forthcoming Housing Bill include powers for local authorities to make such loans. We are also examining the scope for making this type of lending available through other means.

In relation to home ownership, a discussion paper outlining the Scottish Executive's proposals for introducing a range of shared equity tenure models was published by Communities Scotland on 23 November. A copy is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 34524).

A recently published research report showed that the number of cases in Scottish Courts involving the European Convention on Human Rights has dropped in recent years. No comprehensive figures are available on the number of such cases where the applicant is legally aided.

The announcement by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 Sept 2004 that paediatric, maternity and adult acute services should be located on a single site in Glasgow means that the transport of critically ill children will continue to be available to the current high standard.

National Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland will be fully involved in the detailed planning and implementation of the proposal for the triple co-location of services in Glasgow.