asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what plans he has for increasing the number of medical students.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the establishment of new medical schools.

My colleagues and I are giving close attention to this matter, and I am not yet in a position to make a statement on it.

Will my right hon. Friend realise that, due to the shortage of doctors, it would be necessary to have at least five new medical schools and even then they would be producing only 400 more doctors a year? If we get the medical schools, would my right hon. Friend site them in the industrial north of England because doctors tend to settle near where they have been trained? If he intends to expedite the number of students in medical schools, will he please abolish the quota for women which exists in the London medical schools, so that we may get the best people?

There are two questions here. There is the expanding need for more medical students and how it may be met, whether by the provision of new medical schools or the expansion of existing ones. The whole matter is being considered by an official working party representing the Treasury, the Minister of Health, the U.G.C., the Scottish Health Department and my own Department. Until it has produced its conclusions I cannot go further. I will make one further point, which is that the final answer will inevitably depend upon the general review of plans for public expenditure to be undertaken by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Will the right hon. Gentleman give some indication of when he expects that he will be able to make his statement, as this was one of the promises in the election manifesto about which people considered that the Government were poised ready for action?

The Government are poised ready for any action at the right moment on every conceivable subject, but naturally it must be at the appropriate time. I am extremely sympathetic to the case my hon. Friend has made. As to the timing of this statement, it is a complicated issue and I do not think that it would be before the summer.

When considering the siting of new medical schools, will the Minister pay particular attention to the requirements of Hull University which has long sought a medical school?

Yes, Sir.

Can the right hon. Gentleman yet say anything about the inquiry into medical education, bearing in mind the fact that I was under criticism from the present Minister of Health for not having been able to make a statement on this very nearly a year ago?

Not yet.