Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many staff worked in the NHS in each year from 2010-11 to 2015-16; what estimate he has made of the numbers of such staff in each year from 2016-17 to 2020-21; and if he will make a statement.

The number of staff who worked in National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups in England is collected by the Health and Social Care Information Centre and is available from the England table in the following link:

http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB20913/nhs-work-stat-mar-2016-nat-hee-tab.xlsx

Health Education England (HEE) was established to deliver a better healthcare workforce for England and is accountable for ensuring a secure workforce supply for the future.

In December 2015, HEE published its Commissioning & Investment Plan for 2016/17. In that report, they forecast that an additional clinical workforce supply of between 24,000 and 82,000 (full-time equivalent) would be available to the NHS by 2020. The range is generated by assumptions in respect of how actively employers attract newly qualifying output from HEE programmes and act to retain their existing staff.