Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many student midwives are expected to graduate in England and Wales in 2025; and, of these, how many are expected to find employment as midwives following graduation.

The Department does not hold an expected figure for midwives graduating in England and Wales for 2025, or for how many of these graduates will find employment as midwives following graduation.

In order to give a sense of scale, data published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service shows that there were 3,395 acceptances to undergraduate midwifery courses in England in 2022, and a further 180 in Wales. These students would largely be expected to complete their three-year studies in 2025. The Department does not have a forecast rate of attrition for these students to forecast graduating numbers.

To give a sense of the level of recent midwifery graduates joining the profession, data published by the Nursing and Midwifery Council shows that the number of United Kingdom trained midwives joining the register who had a resident address in England or Wales in the 12 months to March 2024 was 2,503.