Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a table of the number of (a) doctors, (b) registered nurses and (c) medical scientists were employed as locums in each (i) month and (ii) year since 2021 and what the total cost was for each group in each of those (A) months and (B) years.

The Department does not hold the information requested. NHS England publishes quarterly information on total agency and bank expenditure by National Health Service providers as part of financial reporting, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/financial-performance-reports

The 2025/26 NHS Planning Guidance states that trusts should reduce their agency spend by a minimum of 30% and bank spend by a minimum of 10%. The accompanying Revenue Finance and Contracting Guidance sets the ambition that agency spend should be eliminated in the coming years.