Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of numbers of Parkinson's specialist staff in (a) West Yorkshire integrated care board area and (b) England.

As of June 2023, there were 5.8 full-time equivalent (FTE) Parkinson’s Consultants working in the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts. There were 10.49 FTE Parkinson’s Clinical Nurse Specialists. This only includes those working in acute hospital services.

While the Department does not hold data specifically on the number of Parkinson’s specialist staff in England, we do hold data on the numbers working in the wider speciality of neurology. As of January 2024, there are over 1,800 FTE doctors working in the specialty of neurology in National Health Service trusts and other organisations in England. This includes over 900 FTE consultant neurologists. In 2023, the fill rate for recruitment into the specialty of neurology in England was 94%.