Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish the NHS workforce plan; whether it will include specific numbers for the (1) recruitment, and (2) training, of additional (a) doctors, (b) nurses, and (c) allied medical staff, needed.

Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)

To support the overall workforce, we have commissioned NHS England to develop a Long-Term Workforce Plan for the National Health Service workforce to help recruit and retain more staff and will include independently verified projections for the number of doctors, nurses and other professionals that will be needed in five, 10 and 15 years’ time. This plan is in development and we have committed to publishing it shortly.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, given the opening of the University of Chester medical school, and the forthcoming opening of a new medical school at the University of Surrey, what plans they have to increase the current cap of 7,500 funded medical places in England; and if they have any such plans, by how many they will increase the cap.

Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government is committed to ensuring that the number of medical school places is in line with England’s workforce requirements.

NHS England has been commissioned to produce a long-term workforce plan, which will include projections for the number of doctors, nurses and other professionals needed in five, 10 and 15 years’ time, taking full account of improvements in retention and productivity. The workforce plan is for the whole of the National Health Service workforce, and will be published this year.

The Government has funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places per year for domestic students in England, a 25% increase, taking the total number of medical school training places in England to 7,500 each year. This expansion was completed in September 2020 and has delivered five new medical schools in England.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the report by the Migration Advisory Committee Review of the Seasonal Worker Visa, published in July, whether they intend to commit to the long-term continuation of the Seasonal Worker Scheme; and what consideration they have given to providing notice of five years or more of any withdrawal from that scheme to allow adjustments to be made by the agricultural and retail sectors.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government is carefully considering the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the Seasonal Worker route and will announce a detailed response in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to continue the Seasonal Worker Visa Scheme as part of a national food security strategy.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government is carefully considering the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the Seasonal Worker route and will announce a detailed response in due course.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect real GDP per capita to return to its pre-pandemic peak; and what steps they are taking to support this growth.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

Achieving sustained economic growth is the priority mission of this government. The government is focused on fixing the foundations of the UK’s economy.

Having launched the Growth Mission in July 2024, the government has already taken several steps including planning reforms to get Britain building, establishing the National Wealth Fund, announcing a Pensions Review, and launching Skills England. The government is under no illusion of the scale of the challenge, however, given the difficult economic inheritance.

HM Treasury does not prepare formal forecasts for the UK economy, which are the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). In its March forecast, the OBR expects that GDP per capita will surpass its pre-pandemic peak in 2025. Further details can be found in Table 1.5 of the OBR’s latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in March 2024: https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-march-2024/.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the estimate in the Office for National Statistic's Labour market overview, UK: September 2024, that the UK economic inactivity rate for people aged 16 to 64 years was 21.9 per cent in May to July 2024; and what action they are taking to reduce economic inactivity of people of working age.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Government has made clear that we consider the current rate of inactivity to be unacceptably high. With nearly 2.8 million people economically inactive due to long-term sickness and the last Parliament seeing the biggest increase in economic inactivity in almost forty years, our inactivity rate is above pre-pandemic levels at 21.9% for May-July 2024 and, unlike most major economies, our overall employment rate has failed to recover to its pre-pandemic level.

Government has set an ambition to get to an 80% employment rate, alongside raising living standards and tackling insecurity at work. The Government plans to tackle economic inactivity, support people into good work and help them to progress.

Proposed reforms include

• A new public employment and careers service to help get more people into work and to progress in work.
• Working with local areas to tackle economic inactivity including the development of joined-up work, health and skills plans for the economically inactive, with input from mayors, local councils, the NHS, businesses, colleges and the voluntary sector to address barriers and deliver employment opportunities for local people.
• A youth guarantee for all people aged 18 to 21 to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or employment support.