Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the vacancy rate in the NHS is for (a) doctors, (b) nurses, (c) midwives, (d) other clinicians, (e) healthcare assistants, (f) other patient facing staff and (g) all staff; and what plans he has to fill those vacancies; and if he will make a statement.

NHS Digital’s data on vacancy rates in National Health Service hospital trusts doctors, registered nurses and all staff in December 2021 shows that there are 110,192 vacancies consisting of 39,652 nursing and midwifery vacancies; 8,158 doctor vacancies; and 62,382 other vacancies. Rates for other clinicians, healthcare assistants, patient facing staff is not held in the format requested. Many of the vacancies will be covered by bank and agency staff

We have funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places each year for domestic students in England and committed to delivering 50,000 more nurses. In July 2021, the Department commissioned Health Education England to review long term strategic trends for the health workforce and regulated professionals in the social care workforce. The Department has also recently commissioned NHS England to develop a workforce strategy and will set out the key conclusions in due course.