Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of EU health workers who have left the NHS since the EU referendum on 23 June 2016.

NHS Digital publishes data on the nationality of staff working in the National Health Service in England and the latest figures show that there were over 3,200 more European Union nationals working in the NHS in September 2017 than before the referendum result.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the NHS and social care system have the nurses, midwives, doctors, carers and other health professionals that it needs.

We continue to monitor and analyse overall staffing levels across the NHS and adult social care, and we are working across Government to ensure there will continue to be sufficient staff to deliver the high quality services on which patients rely following the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU.

On 8 December, the UK and EU Commission reached an agreement which delivered on the Prime Minister’s number one priority, to safeguard the rights of people who have built their lives in the UK and EU, following the UK’s exit from the EU.

The agreement will guarantee the rights of the 150,000 EU nationals working in our health and care system. It means that EU citizens living lawfully in the UK and UK nationals living lawfully in the EU by 29 March 2019 will be able to stay and enjoy broadly the same rights and benefits as they do now.