Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full-time equivalent district nurses worked in the NHS in England in each financial year since 2009-10.

NHS England publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics for England. These include staff working for hospital trusts and other core organisations, but excludes staff working for other providers such as in primary care, general practice, or social care. This data is drawn from the Electronic Staff Record, the human resources system for the National Health Service. The statistics, including those for district nurses, are available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/monthly-nhs-hospital-and-community-health-service-hchs-workforce-statistics

We know that district nurses will also work outside NHS trusts, for other providers of community services. We do not hold data on the number of district nurses working outside the NHS. The Nursing and Midwifery Council publishes data on the number of nurses with district nursing qualifications on the professional register across the United Kingdom, and is available at the following link:

https://www.nmc.org.uk/about-us/reports-and-accounts/registration-statistics/