Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to mandate data collection on the commissioning of the podiatry workforce and services in England.

Podiatry workforce data is available from NHS Digital’s NHS Hospital and Community Health Service workforce statistics. Data on the National Health Service workforce in all NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England is drawn from the Electronic Staff Record.

NHS Digital has established a working group with the Department, Health Education England, NHS Improvement and NHS England and NHS Employers tasked with scoping the future requirements of the NHS for healthcare workforce information.

The commissioning of podiatry services generally is the responsibility of CCGs. CCGs are responsible for decisions on commissioning health services to best meet the needs of their local population.