NHS: Staff

(asked on 8th July 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the effect of ending freedom of movement of people on the NHS workforce.


Answered by
Stephen Hammond Portrait
Stephen Hammond
This question was answered on 16th July 2019

The Government recognises the need for the National Health Service to be able to continue to recruit effectively from abroad when freedom of movement ends. The Immigration White Paper, ‘The UK’s future skills-based immigration system’, published in December 2018, sets out the foundation for a single immigration system, where it is workers’ skills that matter, not where they come from. This system will remove the cap on skilled migrants, abolish the requirement to undertake a Resident Labour Market Test and significantly improve the timeliness of being able to apply for a visa.

Additionally, legislation introduced on the 7 March 2019 means health and care professionals with professional qualifications from European Union and Swiss institutions who are currently registered can continue to practise in the United Kingdom as they do now, guaranteeing their ability to work in the NHS.

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