Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on patient care of reductions in the number of NHS nurses and midwives since 2008.

NHS Digital publishes information on the number of nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff employed in the National Health Service. Earliest data is available for September 2009.

There has been no reduction in the number of nurses and midwives in the English NHS since September 2009. As at March 2017, latest available data, there were over 7,400 full time equivalent more nurses and health visitors and over 2,600 more midwives working in the NHS compared to September 2009.