Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS employees' contracts of employment were terminated for underperformance in each year since 2020.

NHS England publish monthly statistics detailing information on National Health Service staff recorded within the Electronic Staff Record, the human resource system for the NHS. Each quarter, these statistics include data on ‘reasons for leaving’, where these have been recorded upon a member of staff leaving or moving employment. The published data is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics

The attached table summarises the published information, providing details for 2011/12 to 2023/24 of the total number of assignments of NHS staff where a reason for leaving is recorded. Within the total number, the number recorded against the four categories available to define dismissals are also presented. We believe the category ‘dismissal – capability’ is the best proxy for the data requested.

Data is presented from 2011/12 as we know the pattern of staff leaving or moving roles in the NHS was impacted in 2020/21 and 2021/22 by the pandemic and so comparison with pre-pandemic levels is appropriate.

Any interpretation of data should be made with the understanding that not all assignments that finish in the NHS result in a ‘reason for leaving’ being recorded. Therefore, the data presented can be viewed as a minimum number of leavers in any giving category. From analysis of the records of staff who leave NHS employment entirely it is estimated around one third of leavers do not have a reason recorded. There is no data available to confirm the completeness of recording of reasons around dismissals.