Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard 2022 data analysis report for NHS trusts, published 22 February 2023, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of that reports findings on racial disparities in the numbers of people entering the formal disciplinary process.

The NHS Workforce Race Equality Standards report for 2022 showed that ethnic minority staff were 1.14 times more likely to enter the formal disciplinary process compared to white staff. This has significantly improved from 2016 when the likelihood ratio was 1.56.

Although this is moving in the right direction, we cannot be complacent and taking action to continue to reduce this gap will remain a priority through local action plans on the Workforce Race Equality Standard and through the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion improvement plan for the NHS which requires NHS organisations to review disciplinary and employee relations processes and to ensure that all staff who enter into formal processes are treated with compassion, equity and fairness, irrespective of any protected characteristics.