Nurses: Qualifications
(asked on 8th June 2015) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many nurses working in the NHS received their qualifications (1) in the United Kingdom, and (2) elsewhere.
The information requested about the numbers of nurses working in the National Health Service with qualifications gained in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, is not held centrally.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the UK and is responsible for nurse registration. Information provided by the NMC on the total number of registered nurses and midwives at the end of each financial year since 2010, broken down by whether they trained in the UK or elsewhere is shown in the following table. However, it should be noted that those on the NMC register may not be practising or working in the NHS.
Year ending 31 March | Total effective registrants | Qualified in the UK | Qualified Elsewhere |
2010 | 665,983 | 584,589 (88%) | 81,394 (12%) |
2011 | 670,011 | 587,451 (88%) | 82,560 (12%) |
2012 | 672,622 | 588,815 (88%) | 83,807 (12%) |
2013 | 675,278 | 590,364 (87%) | 84,914 (13%) |
2014 | 680,882 | 592,945 (87%) | 87,937 (13%) |
2015 | 686,797 | 593,536 (86%) | 93,261 (14%) |
Source: The Nursing and Midwifery Council
Note: The ‘elsewhere’ column includes those nurses and midwives trained in the European Economic Area excluding the UK and those trained outside of the EEA.