Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans her Department has to (a) intervene in the market for agency care workers and (b) reduce the cost of employing care staff.

There are no plans to do so. The majority of care workers, including agency care workers, are employed by private sector providers who set their pay, independently of central Government. Local authorities work with care providers to determine fee rates, which should take account of wage costs based on local market conditions.