Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what additional resource is being allocated to the Nursing and Midwifery Council to support work on the regulation of graduate nursing apprenticeships in (1) 2017–18, and (2) 2018–19.

The Department is working with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to introduce statutory regulation for the new nursing associate role. The Department has agreed to reimburse the NMC for work undertaken on this project, up to a budget of £624,182 for 2016-17 and £3,092,523 for 2017-18. Funding required by the NMC for 2018-19 and beyond will be subject to future Departmental business planning rounds.

The Department has not provided any additional resource to the NMC in respect of the introduction of nursing degree apprenticeships.