Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the potential effect on staffing levels in the NHS of the UK leaving the EU.

The Department continues to monitor and analyse overall staffing levels in the health and social care sectors and we have been monitoring leaver and joiner rates of European Union staff on a regular basis since the 2016 referendum. We are not complacent, and have plans in place for when the United Kingdom leaves the EU. Our overall programme of work is comprehensive, thorough and continuously updated.

On 8 December 2017 the UK and EU reached an agreement to safeguard the rights of people who have built their lives in the UK and EU, following the UK’s exit from the EU. The agreement will guarantee the rights of the 167,000 EU nationals working in our health and care system. We have been clear from the beginning of this process that we want EU nationals currently working in the National Health Service, to stay after we leave the EU. We have been working with health and social care employers across the whole of England to ensure their EU employees are aware of the straight forward and user-friendly EU settlement scheme which will allow them to secure settled status in the UK and enjoy broadly the same rights and benefits as they do now. This offer will stand irrespective of whether a deal is reached by the time the UK leaves the EU.

The latest nationality statistics show at March 2018 there were 4,558 more EU nationals, excluding the UK (EU27), employed in NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups than in June 2016.