Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what regional variation there has been in the proportion of shifts which have not been filled since the introduction of national price caps for NHS agency staff.

Information on temporary staff fill rates is not collected centrally.

NHS Improvement has calculated that since the introduction of the price caps, agency spending by National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts has fallen from £303 million in October 2015 to £287 million in February 2016.

Monitor has previously released information on the number of trusts reporting using shifts in excess of the price caps from 23 November to 28 December 2015. This can be accessed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/497353/FOI_agency_staff_payments.pdf