Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many EU-born staff were working in the NHS in each year since 2010.
The Department does not collect data on where staff working in the National Health Service were born. However, NHS England publishes quarterly data on the number of staff split by nationality in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. The following table shows the number of staff working in the NHS in England with nationalities from the European Union, each September from 2010 until June 2024, the most recent data point available:
Date | Headcount of staff |
September 2010 | 30,032 |
September 2011 | 32,259 |
September 2012 | 34,418 |
September 2013 | 38,334 |
September 2014 | 45,066 |
September 2015 | 52,808 |
September 2016 | 59,796 |
September 2017 | 61,974 |
September 2018 | 63,484 |
September 2019 | 65,741 |
September 2020 | 68,919 |
September 2021 | 70,056 |
September 2022 | 71,174 |
September 2023 | 74,969 |
June 2024 | 77,289 |
All staff within NHS trusts and commissioning bodies provide a self-reported nationality which is recorded on the Electronic Staff Record system. This may reflect an individual’s cultural heritage rather than their country of birth, with some individuals choosing not to specify it.