Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department's NHS Long Term Workforce Plan will help to reduce workforce gaps in cardiology services, in the context of the size of the waiting list for heart care as of January 2023.

To support the workforce as a whole the Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a Long Term Workforce Plan looking at the next 15 years. The high level long term workforce plan will look at the mix and number of staff required across all parts of the country and will set out the actions and reforms that will be needed to reduce supply gaps and improve retention. The plan is for the whole of the National Health Service workforce in England, including the cardiology workforce.