Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress she has made on increasing the number of medical student places; and whether she expects to meet the commitment to double the number of medical school places by 2031.

We are on track to meeting the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan’s aim to double the number of medical school places in England, from 7,500 to 15,000 places a year by 2031/32. We have accelerated this expansion by allocating 205 additional medical school places for the 2024/25 academic year, and have provisionally allocated a further 350 additional places for the 2025/26 academic year. Final allocations will be published shortly. This will build on the expansion of medical school places in England to 7,500 per year, a 25% increase, that the Government completed in 2020, and which delivered five new medical schools.