Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate the Government has made of the number of additional medical school places required to meet future demand for doctors.

The Government has committed to funding an extra 1,500 undergraduate medical school places per year at English Universities by 2020/21 - a 25% increase. Five new medical schools will open to help deliver the expansion by September 2020, one of which is Edge Hill situated in the North West.

In developing the final NHS People Plan, NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with Health Education England to assess what further expansion in undergraduate medical places will be needed. The final NHS People Plan will be released in 2020 and will set out how the National Health Service will grow and sustain a well-skilled workforce across the whole NHS.