Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help increase the number of medical school places in England.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the number of medical school places is in line with England’s workforce requirements.

The Government has funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places per year for domestic students in England, a 25% increase, taking the total number of medical school training places in England to 7,500 each year. This expansion was completed in September 2020 and has delivered five new medical schools in England.

In addition, the Government temporarily lifted the cap on medical school places for students who completed A-Levels in 2020 and in 2021 and who had an offer from a university in England to study medicine, subject to their grades. As a result of this temporary change, the intakes for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 were 8,405 and 8,460 respectively, significantly above the planned expansion cap of 7,500.

NHS England has been commissioned to produce a long term workforce plan. The Government has committed to publishing the plan this year, and this will include projections for the number of doctors, nurses and other professionals that will be needed in five, 10 and 15 years’ time, taking full account of improvements in retention and productivity.