Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has issued guidance on the appropriate ratio in hospitals of permanent staff to locum staff.

The Department has not issued guidance on staffing ratios in hospitals.

The Department commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to provide guidelines to support safe staffing and endorse safe staffing tools.

In July 2014 NICE issued the first of their guidelines to the National Health Service on how to make the right decisions about nursing staff requirements to provide safe care for patients on adult inpatient wards in acute hospitals. Endorsement of the first toolkit followed in October 2014. Further guidelines for safe staffing in maternity services, accident and emergency and mental health will follow from 2015 onwards.

This guidance and the endorsement of related tools will ensure that all providers have what they need to make decisions on staffing levels locally.