Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will increase the number of places available for students to study medicine and nursing at university.

We have funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places per year in England. In addition, we have temporarily lifted the cap on medical and dental school places for students who completed A levels in 2020 and 2021 and received an offer from a university in England to study medicine or dentistry, subject to their grades. There are no current plans to further increase the number of medical school places.

There is no limit or cap on the number of nursing places at universities. We are offering non-repayable grants of at least £5,000 per year to eligible students and investing £40 million in expanding clinical placement capacity. Over 30,000 students accepted places to study nursing and midwifery at English universities in 2021 recruitment cycle – an increase of 28% compared to 2019.