Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the use of locum staff as compared with permanent staff amongst a) psychiatrists and b) consultant psychiatrists.

NHS England is supporting National Health Service trusts to reduce the reliance on agency staff and encourage the substantive workforce, with temporary staffing used appropriately to maintain safe services. These measures apply across medical specialties, including psychiatrists and consultant psychiatrists.

NHS England’s Agency Rules require trusts to comply with expenditure limits, use approved framework agreements, and observe agency price caps, with exceptions where necessary for patient safety. The rules are designed to encourage agency workers to return to permanent and bank roles.

Under the Medium Term Planning Framework, individual trust agency expenditure limits for 2026/27 are based on a national 30% reduction, supporting the ambition to eliminate agency spending by 2029/30.