To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase the (a) training and (b) recruitment of medical staff who were born in the UK.

The Government has funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places per year for domestic students in England, a 25% increase, taking the total number of medical school training places in England to 7,500 each year. This expansion was completed in September 2020 and has delivered five new medical schools in England.

In addition, the Government temporarily lifted the cap on medical school places for students who completed A-Levels in 2020 and in 2021 and who had an offer from a university in England to study medicine, subject to their grades. As a result of this temporary change, the intakes for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 were 8,405 and 8,460 respectively, significantly above the planned expansion cap of 7,500.

NHS England has been commissioned to produce a long-term workforce plan. The Government has committed to publishing the plan shortly which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years, taking account of improvements in retention and productivity. The workforce plan is for the whole of the National Health Service workforce.