Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average number of hours spent by doctors and nurses in statutory and mandatory training; and what is the cost to the NHS of the time they spend undertaking such training.

The exact amount of statutory and mandatory training completed varies, depending on which organisation they work for, their role or roles, and the frequency of their movement between organisations, for instance resident doctors rotating between organisations may have to repeat some of the training.

On average, it is estimated that nationally defined statutory and mandatory training takes up to eight hours or one day per person per year and locally mandated training will add to this. This considerable investment of time has to be balanced against the fact that this training is both important, for instance safety training and emergency preparedness training, and often required by law.

In early 2024, NHS England commenced work in partnership with the Department, the Care Quality Commission, the Health Services Safety Investigations Branch, and NHS Resolution to reform statutory and mandatory training through a programme to optimise, rationalise, and redesign.