Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how frequently the Government conducts regular analyses of workforce pressures and trends within (a) healthcare, (b) primary care and (c) general practice; and whether those analyses are published.

There are a number of regular workforce data publications on pressures and trends in healthcare, primary care and general practice. These include workforce size in hospitals, general practice, dentistry and primary care networks and data on turnover and sickness absence of hospital staff published by NHS Digital, including COVID-19 related sickness absence. The results of the annual National Health Service staff survey are published by NHS England.

In July 2021, the Department commissioned Health Education England to review long term strategic trends for the health workforce and regulated professionals in the social care workforce. In addition, the Department recently commissioned NHS England to develop a workforce strategy, which will set out its conclusions in due course.