Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she has taken to increase the number of vets trained in England.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Luton North on 6 July 2023, PQ 191960.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of granting a second student loan to prospective veterinary studies students who have already completed an undergraduate degree in a separate subject in order to help tackle the shortage of veterinarians in the UK.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

In most cases, students who already have an equivalent or higher-level higher education qualification, compared with the one offered by their current course, will not qualify for maintenance or fee support.

However, the department recognises the need to promote access to professions by protecting the position of students who wish to retrain in the following subjects: teaching, architecture, social work, medicine, dentistry, veterinary science and healthcare. Students on these courses may qualify for some support, even when they already have an equivalent level qualification.

Students undertaking a full-time second degree in veterinary studies will qualify for maintenance support for the duration of their course.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the level of shortages of veterinary surgeons in the UK; and what steps he is taking to support more people to train as veterinary surgeons in the UK.

Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General

The Department engages regularly with a range of stakeholders including both the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and British Veterinary Association on the issue of veterinary shortages across the profession. To help mitigate this, there are new veterinary schools opening at Harper Adams and Keele, The University of Central Lancashire, the Scottish Rural College and a collaboration between the University of Aberystwyth and the Royal Veterinary College (London). This will help substantially increase the number of UK graduates entering the veterinary profession in the longer term.