Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect recruitment of Zimbabwean health care staff in the UK has on the health services in that country.

We have made no specific assessment of the impact on the Zimbabwean healthcare system of recruitment by the National Health Service. We have had no discussions with the Government of Zimbabwe on entering a partnership agreement.

International recruitment is regulated through the Code of Practice for the International Recruitment of Health and Social Care Personnel. The Code includes a ‘red list’ of 47 countries identified by the World Health Organization as having the most pressing health and social care workforce challenge, from which active recruitment is prohibited. The Government monitors international recruitment activity and where there are significant workforce flows into the NHS, particularly from low and middle-income countries, we engage with partner Governments on how this recruitment could be managed.