Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact of NHS staffing shortages on the availability of medical Reservists for the armed forces.

No specific assessment has been made. NHS Employers, which is part of the NHS Confederation and supports workforce development across the National Health Service, runs a programme that is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Defence to encourage NHS organisations to be supportive and flexible employers when it comes to people joining the Armed Forces Reserve. This ensures that people with the critically important skills that the reserves are looking for, such as doctors, are able to train and deploy when needed.