Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many doctors were (a) trained to specialise in addiction services and (b) entered the addiction services workforce in each year since 2010; and if he will make a statement.

The table below shows how many doctors were trained to specialise in addiction services in each year since 2010 in England:

Information on the number of doctors who work in addiction services is not held centrally.

The historic medical expansion of 1,500 additional medical school places in England will help ensure the National Health Service has enough doctors to continue to provide safe, compassionate care in the future. As part of this expansion, five brand new medical schools have been announced, including Edge Hill University, University of Sunderland, Anglia Ruskin University, University of Lincoln and Canterbury Christ Church University.

As part of the bidding process for the allocation of new medical school places, bids from universities were assessed against the following priorities:

- widening participation and improving access so that the medical workforce is more representative of the population it serves;

- aligning expansion to local NHS workforce need with an emphasis on priority geographical areas, including rural and coastal areas;

- supporting general practice and other shortage specialties so that the NHS can deliver services required to meet patient need;

- ensuring sufficient provision of high quality training and clinical placements; and

- encouraging innovation and market liberalisation.