Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of comments by the vice-chancellors of Worcester University and of West of England University that no new money has been made available to fund the promised 10,000 new training places for nurses after the abolition of nurse bursaries; and if he will make a statement.

The Government remains committed to reforming nursing, midwifery and allied health pre-registration education and increasing the number of places available for students so that two in three nursing applicants are no longer turned down for a place; at the same time ensuring these students have more cash available to them while they study. As a result, we expect these reforms to enable universities to create up to 10,000 additional nursing and other health professional training places by 2020.

Health Education England is confident that the National Health Service will have the required number of students it needs starting courses this year and will continue to work with the education sector to deliver these reforms successfully for the longer term.

It should also be noted that students will continue to apply for courses up to September and through clearing.

Arrangements confirming the future clinical placement model will be published in due course.