Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the amount spent by the NHS on locum doctors in each of the last five years.

Information on the amount spent by the National Health Service on locum doctors in each of the last five years is not held centrally.

The Department only collects data on overall spending on agency staff at a national level and this is incorporated into the Department’s annual accounts.