Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the merits of legislation that has been introduced in Scotland to promote safe levels of staffing in the NHS.

The Department is aware that legislation has been introduced in Scotland to provide a statutory basis for the provision of appropriate staffing in health and care service settings based upon workload planning tools.

In England, the 16 safety and quality requirements set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 already place a duty on health care providers on the deployment of sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced staff.

Appropriate staffing levels are a core element of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) registration regime and all providers of regulated services must be registered with the CQC and meet the registration requirements.

The National Quality Board for England has issued guidance to support trusts as they discharge this responsibility through their own local processes.