Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many junior doctors left the NHS workforce in each of the last five years.

NHS England publish data on the numbers of National Health Service (NHS) staff broken down by grade, who have left active service in NHS trusts and core organisations. This data is drawn from the Electronic Staff Record (ESR), the HR system for the NHS. Data can be found here:

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

The data includes staff employed by NHS trusts and integrated care boards, but excludes staff directly employed by general practitioner (GP) surgeries, local authorities, and other providers, such as community interest companies and private providers.

The count of leavers includes staff leaving to work in GPs, local authorities, and private providers. It also includes those going on maternity leave, or career breaks. Each year staff move both ways, between NHS trusts and other health providers. This is particularly important to note for junior doctors, as data on leavers will include those moving as part of planned rotations and placements into GPs or other settings.