Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that people with a Frontier Worker Permit are (a) on UK employment contracts and (b) paid above the National Minimum Wage.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Frontier Worker Permit scheme implements our commitment under the Citizens’ Rights Agreements to protect the rights of EU, other EEA and Swiss citizens who were frontier working in the UK before the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020 for as long as they continue to be frontier workers.
The Agreements provide that frontier workers must not be discriminated against on grounds of nationality as regards employment, remuneration and other conditions of work and employment. Free and confidential advice on the National Minimum Wage is available by contacting Acas on 0300 123 1100. Any worker who believes they are not receiving what they are entitled to can also complain directly to His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs via their online complaints form on GOV.UK, which can be found by searching “complain about pay and work rights”.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many band 5 nurse role were advertised for internal applicants in (a) 2024, (b) 2023 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many nurses qualified to work in the NHS (a) 2024, (b) 2023 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) publishes information on the number of nurses joining their register for the first time, who are resident in England. It is important to note that newly registered nurses may choose to work in a range of settings, including National Health Service trusts, private or third sector bodies, who may undertake NHS work, or social care settings.
The following table shows the number of nurses joining the NMC register in England for the first time by financial year:
Financial year | Number of registered nurses joining the NMC register for the first time in England |
2022/23 | 24,108 |
2023/24 | 28,049 |
2024/25 | 29,210 |
Source: Nursing and Midwifery Council, March 2025 Annual Data Report, available at the following link:
https://www.nmc.org.uk/about-us/reports-and-accounts/registration-statistics/
The information may slightly undercount first time register joiners in England as it is based on the address registered with the NMC.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy for newly qualified nurses to be guaranteed a job in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on the employment of newly qualified nurses are a matter for individual National Health service trusts, which manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.
We are working closely with NHS England, employers, and educators to ensure support is in place to help graduating nurses transition into the workforce.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many newly qualified nurses were employed in the NHS as a band 5 nurse after six months of being a qualified in (a) 2024, (b) 2023 and (c) 2022 .
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many newly qualified nurses were employed in the NHS as a band 5 nurse after three months of being a qualified in (a) 2024, (b) 2023 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people holding a Frontier Worker Permit have retained worker status.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Frontier Worker Permits were (a) issued and (b) valid in 2024-25.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas by visa type, including Frontier Worker Permits, in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the outcomes of visa applications are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the ‘detailed entry clearance dataset’.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. Data is from January 2005 up to the end of March 2025.
Information on how many visas were valid in a given period is not currently available from published statistics.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which UK Visas and Immigration international (a) application points and (b) decision-making centres processed applications to work in (i) construction, (ii) maintenance and (iii) seafaring roles in the offshore wind industry under the Offshore Wind Workers Concession scheme between 2017 and 2023.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Visa applications for the Offshore Wind Workers Concession Scheme were processed by the following Decision Making Centres (DMCs): Riyadh, Beijing, Manila, Bogota, Istanbul, Pretoria, Chennai, Warsaw, Abu Dhabi, Amman, New Delhi, Croydon, Liverpool and Sheffield.
A number of construction, maintenance and seafaring roles were also processed by the above DMCs.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) staff headcount, (b) full-time equivalent number of staff and (c) departmental budget required to administer the Frontier Worker Visa scheme was in each year between 2021-22 and 2024-25.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department operates a flexible staffing model to ensure that available resources are deployed effectively according to demand. As such, staff engaged on the Frontier Worker Visa scheme are also engaged in the administration of other high-volume routes.