Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to protect (a) mental health and (b) learning disability nursing routes.

In December 2019, the Government announced that from September 2020, all eligible new and continuing nursing and midwifery and Allied Health Profession students on pre-registration courses at English universities will receive additional funding of at least £5,000 a year.

There will be up to a further £3,000 to support eligible students including an additional £1,000 to support those studying a shortage specialism which includes new students on mental health nursing and learning disability nursing courses.

The latest Universities and Colleges Admissions Service statistics show that the number of unique applications for nursing and midwifery courses are up 16% year-on-year - reaching 47,320 by the end of June.