Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Social Mobility Commission report, Time for Change: An Assessment of Government Policies on Social Mobility 1997-2017, what steps he plans to take to tackle low levels of social mobility in the medical profession.

Medical schools already offer a variety of outreach schemes for students wishing to study medicine as a career, with some offering summer school for secondary school age students that assist with medical school applications and gaining work experience, while others undertake outreach to primary schools to inspire children at a young age to consider medicine as a career.

In expanding the number of medical schools places in England by 1,500 the Government set out its commitment and clear intention that widening participation and increasing social mobility would be central to this historic expansion. Funding an additional 1,500 medical school places in England will provide more opportunities for people to study for a career in medicine, regardless of their social and economic background or the school at which they studied.

This approach will mean intelligent and motivated people, regardless of their background, are no longer turned away by medical schools and forced to do other degrees.