Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the impact of the return to practice programme on the number of registered nurses.

The Return to Practice (RTP) programme, led by NHS England and formerly Health Education England, is available for all nurses and midwives who have allowed their Nursing and Midwifery Council registration to lapse. Since its inception in 2014, the RTP programme has been successful in supporting 9,975 nurse returners through the Higher Education Institution route.