13. What steps he plans to take to increase the availability of nurse training in the NHS. (902870)

I thank my hon. Friend for asking this question. I can tell her that we have made significant steps. In the past two years, there has been an 11% increase in nurse training places, and I anticipate that that increase will continue this year. We are providing over 23,000 full-time-equivalent additional nurses by 2019. We expect there to be an additional 10,000 nurse training places as a result of the announcements made by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor last year.

Speaking as a nurse, I would struggle to undertake my nurse training given the proposed changes to the bursary scheme. I know that the Minister is working very hard on this, but will he outline what additional routes into nursing are planned to help mature students and those on a low income to gain access to nurse training?

My hon. Friend is right to point out that there are different ways into nursing. Just a few weeks ago, we announced a massive expansion in apprenticeships across the NHS, and I anticipate that a significant number will be for those going into nursing. The new post of nursing associate is a vocational route into nursing via an apprenticeship. In addition, our reforms to bursaries will ensure that there is a 25% increase in funding to recipients, bringing it into line with the rest of the student cohort. That cohort has seen a considerable expansion in the number of students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds as a result of the reforms that we undertook in 2011 and 2012.

Does the Minister accept that his Government’s decision to cut nurse training places by 3,000 a year since 2010 has led to the huge shortage of nursing staff in the NHS and an increased reliance on nurses recruited from abroad and expensive agency staff, and that that will get worse with the abolition of bursaries? Is not this a textbook example of a false economy from the Government?

The hon. Lady should look at the facts. March 2015 saw a record number of nurses in the NHS—319,595. We are increasing the number of nurse training places. We are able to increase them by considerably more than we could have done otherwise, as a result of the reforms to student finance that bring nurses into line with teachers and other public sector professionals.

It would be good to hear the Minister concede that it was a bad idea back in 2010 to cut the number of nurse training places. Even today we are still training fewer nurses than we were in 2009. Not only have this Government failed to recruit enough nurses, they have failed to retain them too: last year there was a 12% increase in the number of nurses leaving hospitals. With staff morale already at an all-time low, why does the Minister think it is right that nurses should be burdened with a lifetime of debt to pay for his Government’s mistakes?

The hon. Gentleman raises a reasonable point about attrition rates: they have remained too high for too long. One of the things we are undertaking at the moment is to talk intensively with universities to see how we can reduce attrition rates. We have had some success in some areas, but I want to see far more. It is important that students stay on their courses as much as possible. Of course, many go into community nursing. I would be prepared to write to the hon. Gentleman about further actions we are taking on attrition rates.