Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hours of unpaid overtime have NHS (a) nurses, (b) doctors, (c) midwives, (d) paramedics and (e) staff overall, worked in each of the last three years.

Answered by Will Quince

The information requested is not collected centrally. However, the NHS Staff Survey asks respondents whether they routinely complete unpaid work and the average number of hours completed. The following table shows the proportion of staff who reported doing unpaid work in the 2021 NHS staff survey by occupation group and the average amount of unpaid work per week.

Source: 2021 NHS Staff Survey

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the number of frontline NHS staff opting (a) to not work overtime and (b) to reduce the number of overtime hours worked as a result to the potential impact that overtime pay might have on their eligibility for the High-Income Child Benefit Tax Charge and level of household income.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

No assessment has been made. Data on the number of staff not working overtime or reducing their overtime hours is not held centrally.

We have had no specific discussions with HM Treasury and no assessment of the potential impact of an exemption on staffing levels in winter 2021/22.