Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help recruit staff to tackle the NHS backlog in medical procedures.

Financial support is being made available to support recruitment initiatives, including a healthcare support worker programme and the introduction of medical support workers to provide additional capacity for clinical support roles and qualified doctors. The Landmark programme aims to attract those that have supported the pandemic response into permanent and flexible health and care careers and further responses are being developed by the National Health Service as part of its elective recovery planning process.