Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the maximum capacity in medical schools for students for 2024/25.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) published by NHS England on 30 June 2023 sets out the aim of doubling the number of medical school places in England to 15,000 a year by 2031/32, and to work towards this expansion by increasing places by a third, to 10,000 a year, by 2028/29.

In October 2023, the Office for Students (OfS) was asked by myself and the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education to increase the number of home student places for the 2024/25 academic year by 205. This accelerated delivery of the LTWP.

The OfS was asked to engage with the Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care, as well as NHS England and the General Medical Council, as it made decisions about how to allocate the funding for these places.

This process included consideration of the capacity of medical schools to take additional students in 2024/25. We are in the final stage of allocating 350 additional medical schools places for the 2025/26 academic year. We will set out plans for future years in due course.