Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of current vacancies within (a) the NHS and (b) the social care workforce the Government expects to be filled by workers recruited from overseas by the end of 2022; and what recent steps his Department has taken to facilitate the recruitment of those workers.

No specific estimate has been made. However, the Government has committed to making more effective use of international recruitment to increase the National Health Service and social care workforce. International recruitment has the potential to fill thousands of vacancies, allowing the health and care sectors to benefit from the skills of overseas workers wishing to work in England.