Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) male, and (2) female, medical doctors including general practitioners are employed by the National Health Service.

As at 30 September 2013 there were more than 5,600 (headcount) more doctors working and training in the hospital and community health services (HCHS) and general practice than in September 2010.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre annual workforce census provides data on the number of HCHS medical and dental staff and the number of general practitioners working and training in the National Health Service in England. The latest information is for 30 September 2013 and shows there were 148,968 doctors, including registrars and retainers. 79,593 of these were male and 69,375 were female. The next census will be published on 25 March 2015 and will show the position at 30 September 2014.

The attached table shows the number of doctors by gender from 2003-2013.