Medicine: Higher Education

(asked on 21st January 2026) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase the number of medical schools to ensure more doctors are trained in the UK.


Answered by
Baroness Merron Portrait
Baroness Merron
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 26th January 2026

In England, the Office for Students (OfS) sets the maximum fundable limit for medical school places on an annual basis.

For the 2025/26 academic year, the OfS has published the maximum fundable limit at 8,126 for medical school places, with further information available on the OfS website, in an online only format. OfS will publish the limit for the 2026/27 academic year in due course.

The Government is committed to training the staff we need, including doctors, to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. International staff, including doctors, remain an important part of our workforce but we are committed to building and increasing our domestic home-grown talent from across all of our communities.

The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed services set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.

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