Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 22 November (HL Deb, col 1833), whether an independent assessment of recruitment levels will be carried out in January 2017 once the rate of applications has been calculated.

For courses beginning on 1 August 2017, the main deadline for the majority of full-time undergraduate courses through the University and Colleges’ Admissions Service (UCAS) is 15 January 2017. However, universities can accept applications up until August 2017, and applicants can also apply directly for some part-time and postgraduate courses at specific higher education institutions.

The Department of Health intends to work with ‎the Department for Education, UCAS and other healthcare education bodies to determine the most appropriate point and method following 15 January 2017, to assess available information on applications for pre-registration nursing, midwifery and allied health profession courses.