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The Joint Future Group has identified and agreed a list of measures which all local authorities, health boards and NHS trusts should put in place to deliver effective, integrated services and has set deadlines by which this should be done. We are currently consulting on the group's report.

The Scottish health plan, Our National Health, published on 14 December, commits the Executive to introducing the Joint Future Group's recommendations on joint resourcing and joint management, and to legislating if necessary to remove any remaining barriers to joint working between the NHS, social work and housing departments.

Our National Health also makes clear that local authorities will have a strong voice on the new Unified NHS Boards through membership of the boards. It also commits NHS Boards to joint planning with local authorities in their areas, so that health planning and community planning are integrated. The Health Plan commits NHS Boards to work with local authorities and other partners to understand and respond to the needs of patients and communities, to improve the health of their communities and to deliver healthcare and other related services.The Scottish Executive will monitor the progress of NHS bodies and local authorities in working together at local level to make these developments happen.

Education authorities are required to make adequate provision for pupils with speech and language impairment. Grant-aided expenditure of £6.5 million per year from April 1999 is available to local authorities for speech and language therapy services for pupils with Records of Needs.In addition, Scottish Ministers are committed to a review of speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy services for children. The issues relating to the recruitment of speech and language therapists will be addressed as part of this review. Scottish Executive Education and Health Department officials have been consulting on the remit and timescale of the review, in association with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapy. Ministers will make a decision on the final remit soon.

The Scottish Tourist Board and the British Tourist Authority are responsible for encouraging tourist visits through the generic marketing of Scotland as a tourism destination. A New Strategy for Scottish Tourism, published in February, contains many new actions designed to grow tourism throughout Scotland.

The allocation to Falkirk Council announced on 7 December includes Level Playing Field Support for Schools of approximately £26 million. Falkirk Council's single capital allocation will also rise to approximately £9 million (a 44.6% increase) over the next three years. The Single Allocation covers roads and transport, education, social work, private housing and general services (including coast protection and flood prevention). It is for Falkirk Council to decide how its Single Allocation is spent.

Under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, local road authorities are responsible for all aspects of road safety, road maintenance and traffic management on local roads in their area. It is up to each individual council to consider the need for particular measures to safeguard road users and to determine the priority that should be given to particular schemes in the light of competing demands on their resources. This could include the making of traffic regulation orders allowing private hire cars access to a specific part of the road, such as a bus lane.

Scotland currently educates 14.5% of the UK total of medical students, which is significantly more than its pro rata share of 10% based on relative population size.The number of medical students should not be decided in isolation. It should be linked to the number of career grade doctors that the NHS in Scotland will need in the future, and the number of postgraduate doctors in training that are needed to provide services and to supply those career grade doctors. Our National Health, the health plan for Scotland published on 14 December, includes a commitment to a fundamental review of medical workforce planning, including the intake of medical students and the possibility of fast-track graduate-entry medical degree courses in Scotland.

Provisional figures indicate that the number of pupils studying mathematics at SCE Higher/National Qualification Higher level in the 1999-2000 session increased slightly from 1998-99. The number taking physics did however decline slightly over the same period. The introduction of new National Qualifications at Intermediate level have seen an encouraging rise in participation rates in physics and mathematics which are likely to result in increased participation at the higher levels of study in future years. The Executive is also preparing a science strategy which will cover science education including physics.

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The main responsibility for ensuring adequate hygiene levels in NHS hospitals in Scotland lies with NHS Trusts. Our National Health: a plan for action, a plan for change, published on 14 December, makes clear that the Scottish Executive expects every NHS Trust to act on the recommendations of the Audit Scotland report A Clean Bill of Health by June 2001.A joint Scottish Executive Health Department/NHS working group is currently preparing recommendations on compliance with, and monitoring of, hospital cleanliness and other standards. These recommendations will be applied to NHS Trusts as soon as they are finalised.

As announced in Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change, the Department is consulting on a proposal to allow all nicotine replacement therapy products to be prescribed on the NHS by GPs. The consultation letter was issued on 14 December and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre.