6. Will the First Minister provide an update on the establishment of Bangor medical school? OQ58870

I thank Siân Gwenllian, Llywydd. Intake numbers have been agreed and funding approved for 140 students per year, once the school reaches optimum capacity. A letter of assurance was sent to General Medical Council colleagues in November to allow Bangor University to continue their forward momentum through the accreditation process.

As we are about to discuss the draft budget for the next year, it's good to remember that establishing a medical school in Bangor emanated from a budget agreement between Plaid Cymru and your Government several years ago now, long before the co-operation agreement, truth be told. So, it is good to see this commitment continuing to be supported and the plan going from strength to strength. Bangor is quickly developing as a centre of medical training and health training. A new dental academy has just opened there, leading to possibilities for the teaching of dentistry in Bangor. There is discussion ongoing about studying pharmacy in the city. Do you, as a Government, support the creation of a health training centre in Bangor that would contain not just the new medical school, but dentistry and pharmacy too?

I thank Siân Gwenllian, Llywydd. I do agree that it is good to see everything that we've done together to establish a medical school in Bangor coming to fruition in a successful manner. And, of course, as the local Member, Siân Gwenllian has ambition about drawing on the success in the context of the medical school to do more for the future. I have seen the responses that Eluned Morgan has given to the written questions tabled by Siân Gwenllian. This demonstrates that the university in Bangor has now started to provide degrees in pharmacology, and, after that, there are possibilities in terms of developing degrees in pharmacy too.

In terms of dentistry, it is good to see the academy opening and providing services to local people. The facilities are already there to help those who are training as dental hygienists in Bangor, and indeed, as I've explained more than once on the floor of the Chamber, in my view, the priority in dentistry is not focusing only on training dentists, but also looking at the team around dentists that can provide services in that area. In future, the hope is that there will be opportunities for people in Bangor to do more to help us to expand the number of people who can provide services to people in that area.