Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions officials in his Department have had with representatives of the Nursing and Midwifery Council on relaxing the requirements for International English Language Testing System evidence forms during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom, and nursing associates in England. It sets the standards that registrants must meet to demonstrate that they are capable of practising safely and effectively. This includes assessing that an applicant can speak, read, listen and write English to the required standards.

There are currently no plans to relax the requirements for English language competence set by the NMC for overseas candidates applying to join the register.