Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the effect on NHS staffing levels of the UK leaving the EU.

DExEU Ministers continue to hold regular discussions with the Department of Health and Social Care Ministers. The Government hugely values the contribution of EU staff to the NHS. We have taken steps to ensure that existing staff are able to remain working and living in the UK through the EU Settlement Scheme; and we will seek to ensure qualifications from the EU will continue to be recognised after we have exited the European Union.

Since the referendum, there are almost 7,300 more EU nationals working in NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups.¹ Furthermore, the Government has pledged to increase nurse numbers by 50,000 in the next five years, and give all nursing students on courses from September 2020 a payment of at least £5,000 which they will not need to pay back.

Recruitment for the NHS does not stop at the EU, we recruit talented individuals from all over the globe. The Government will launch a new visa to ensure qualified doctors, nurses and health professionals have fast-track entry to work in the United Kingdom. This will help ensure that there will be sufficient numbers of staff following the UK’s exit from the EU to enable the delivery of the high-quality services on which the public relies.

The Department for Health and Social Care continues to monitor and analyse staffing levels across the NHS and social care.

1 NHS Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) Workforce Statistics in England, NHS Digital, (Dec 2019). Figure based on comparison between June 2016 and September 2019.