Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how his Department plans to ensure that there is no shortfall of nursing staff by the end of 2019; and what discussions his Department has had with the Home Office on those plans.

Health Education England (HEE) is responsible for the forecasting and planning of future workforce supply, working with National Health Service organisations to meet their needs and there are currently over 51,000 students undergoing nurse training within England.

As part of their mandate requirements to ensure that the correct numbers of qualified nurses are trained to fill vacancies, HEE has already increased all nurse training places by nearly 15% over the last three years and are forecasting that more than 40,000 additional nurses could be available by 2020. Nursing continues to be identified as a priority area for investment within the 2016/17 Workforce Plan for England to ensure future supply shortages are avoided and over the last 12 months we have seen record numbers of nurses working in the NHS.

In addition, from 1 August 2017, student nurse training will be funded through student loans enabling universities to increase training places significantly – offering up to 10,000 more nursing, midwifery and allied health training places over this Parliament.

Nurses were placed on the Home Office’s Shortage Occupation List as an interim move and following a call for evidence and a further review of the United Kingdom nursing recruitment requirements by the independent Migration Advisory Committee, the Government accepted their recommendation that nursing remains on the Shortage Occupation List until July 2019, when a further review will take place.