Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many UK applicants were rejected for a training place for new entrants to nursing in each of the last five years.

Ben Gummer, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Care Quality: Health Education England (HEE) is responsible for workforce planning in the National Health Service and their recently published HEE commissioning and investment plan 16/17 forecasts an additional supply of 40,000 nurses by 2020. Moving new nursing students on to the student loans system in August 2017 will allow universities to offer up to a further 10,000 nursing, midwifery and allied health degree places by 2020/21.

The HEE commissioning and investment plan 16/17 forecasts demands for additional nurses and midwives in the health and care sector in the next five years will rise by around 16,800.

The Department does not collect data on the numbers of applicants who were not successful in gaining a nurse training place.