Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Government's target to recruit 50,000 more nurses, announced in July 2020, how many new nursing vacancies have been fulfilled since that announcement; and how many of those new nurses have been retained.

The information on number of vacancies filled is not held in the format requested as individual vacancies are not collected centrally, only aggregate numbers. However, overall trends show that nursing staff numbers are increasing therefore we are on track to deliver 50,000 more nurses by end of this Parliament.