Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to increase the number of (a) full-time, (b) part-time and (c) full-time equivalent nurses.

Individual health and care employers are responsible for determining workforce needs and agreeing working patterns locally.

National action is being taken to support local decisions about staff working patterns, and the recruitment and retention of nursing staff more generally, specifically the Government’s commitment for 50,000 more nurses in the National Health Service.

Further, the NHS Interim People Plan sets out an ambition to increase flexible working for staff through a combination of technology and a change in people practices, to give people greater choice over their working patterns and help them achieve a better work-life balance.