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 delays to the recruitment of overseas doctors for reasons of visa restrictions in (a) Ealing hospital and (b) the North West London Trust area in each of the last three years.

The Department does not hold information centrally on the number of delays to the recruitment of overseas doctors as a result of visa restrictions.

The Government recognises fully the contribution that international doctors working in the National Health Service make towards delivering the high quality compassionate care we all expect.

But it is important that our immigration system works in the national interest, ensuring that employers look first to the United Kingdom resident labour market before recruiting from overseas.

The Department and the Home Office are monitoring the operation of the cap on the number of Certificates of Sponsorship for Tier 2 (General) visas closely to ensure it continues to strike the right balance. The health sector continues to occupy the largest cohort of applications within the Tier 2 (General) limit, taking 39% of available Certificates within the cap in 2017/18.