Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which NHS shortages of (1) nurses, (2) medical practitioners, and (3) other staff, could be filled by those coming to the UK from Hong Kong under (a) the British National (Overseas) visa, and (b) any other schemes; and what plans they have (i) to identify, and (ii) to recruit, suitably qualified people from Hong Kong for such roles.

Hong Kong is not on the World Health Organization’s Workforce Support and Safeguard List, 2020. Therefore, the Department considers Hong Kong a suitable country for supplying the National Health Service with qualified health workers. Agencies are working in Hong Kong and some nurses have already joined the NHS.