Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many nurses were employed in each NHS region in May (a) 2010 and (b) 2014.

The provisional monthly National Health Service hospital and community health service workforce statistics, published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, show the numbers of nurses and the numbers of acute, elderly and general nurses by NHS region working in the NHS in England and can be broken down by Agenda for Change (AfC) band.

In May 2014 there were 175,235 full time equivalent acute, elderly and general nurses working in the NHS in England, which is over 6,300 more since May 2010.

The numbers of nurses and the numbers of acute, elderly and general nurses by NHS region and by AfC band in May 2010 and May 2014 are shown in the attached tables.