Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase the supply of nurses in public hospitals.

We have record numbers of nurses working in the National Health Service. Since May 2010 we have seen an increase of almost 6,500 nurses in the NHS (a 2.3% increase), and there are currently over 52,000 students training to become nurses.

We have increased the number of training places for both new and nurses returning to practice.

Developing new routes into nursing is a priority for the Department. We have developed the new Nursing Associate role and Nursing Degree Apprenticeship which will open up routes into the registered nursing profession for thousands of people from all backgrounds and allow employers to grow their own workforce. The Nursing Associate has been designed to bridge the gap between senior healthcare support workers and registered nurses delivering hands on care and freeing up registered nurses to focus on clinical duties and using their specialist training to lead patient care. Nursing Associates will complement, not replace, Registered Nurses.