Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 6 January (HL4745), on what evidence the forecast in Health Education England's (HEE) commissioning and investment plan for 2016–17 of a rise in podiatry workforce demand of 1.5 per cent between 2015 and 2020 is based; and why HEE decided to reduce the number of commissioned education and training courses in podiatry in 2016–17 by 9.7 per cent compared to 2015–16.

National Health Service future workforce demand is based on a comprehensive collection of NHS provider forecasts taken up by Health Education England (HEE) and discussed both locally and nationally with commissioners and professional leaders as to likely direction of travel.

In order to afford the expansion of priority areas such as adult nurse, paramedic and mental health training numbers, HEE has taken a risk assessment based approach to deciding on where to focus commissions for training places in 2016/17.

The HEE commissioning and investment plan - 2016/17 includes a forecast increase in the level of podiatry commissions of 36.4% by 2020.