Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of publishing an assessment of (a) current and (b) future workforce requirements in health and social care each two years from 2022 onwards.

There are no current plans to make such an assessment. However, workforce supply is monitored by the Department and other bodies involved in workforce planning. NHS Digital publishes workforce statistics on a regular basis.

In July 2021, the Department commissioned Health Education England to work with partners to review long term strategic trends for the health and regulated social care workforce. In addition, the Department has recently commissioned NHS England and NHS Improvement to develop a workforce strategy. Further information on the strategy and its conclusions will be published in due course.