Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions have taken place with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine on the recruitment of medical consultants for hospitals in (a) England and (b) the devolved regions.

The Department is in regular dialogue with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine on a range of issues. The provision of health services in the United Kingdom is a devolved issue.

The latest (December 2016) National Health Service workforce statistics of staff working in trusts and clinical commissioning groups shows that since May 2010, there are over 600 more full-time equivalent medical consultants working in the emergency medicine specialty group. This is an increase of 61%.