Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential effect of the change in student funding for nurses on the number of people applying to study nursing; and what the potential effect on the NHS will be.

A preliminary Economic Impact Assessment and Equality Analysis was published alongside the public consultation launched on 7 April 2016.

The Government assessment shows that nursing is consistently one of the most popular courses on University Central Administration Service with 57,000 applicants for around 20,000 nursing places in 2014. Midwifery and Allied Health Professional courses receive higher than average applications as well.