Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the Scottish Government's publication entitled Healthcare Science in Scotland: Defining Our Strategic Approach, published on 14 March 2024, and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a similar strategy for England.

The Department has not made an assessment of the publication, Healthcare Science in Scotland: Defining Our Strategic Approach. NHS England published the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan in June 2023, which sets out future National Health Service workforce requirements for England, including with respect to healthcare scientists.

The plan assesses that education and training places for healthcare scientists need to increase by 20 to 34%, reaching between 930 to 1,039 places by 2033/34. The ambition set out in this plan is to increase training places for healthcare scientists by 32%, to over 1,000 places by 2031/32. We will work towards achieving this ambition by increasing training places by 13%, to over 850 places, by 2028/29.