Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his department has provided to (a) establish a medical school at the University of Derby, and (b) to do so in time for the 2027/28 academic year.

The Government welcomes the University of Derby’s commitment to establishing a medical school and to supporting the local community and boosting social mobility.

It is for the independent regulator, the General Medical Council (GMC), to approve new medical schools. The GMC has a clear set out processes that all prospective medical schools need to follow in order to receive approval to admit students and ultimately be added to the list of bodies that can award a Primary Medical Qualification.

The Government caps the number of places that it funds for each medical and dental school in England. We have not yet confirmed specific plans to make further places available, but were we to do so then we would run a bidding process led by the Office for Students, which all eligible medical schools would be invited to participate in.