Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the need to reduce vacancy levels amongst medical professionals and ancillary staff in the NHS.

As set out in NHS Improvement’s most recent quarterly Performance of the NHS provider sector report, management information shows that over the course of the last year medical vacancy rates have reduced, from 10,848 whole time equivalent (WTE) in the first quarter of 2017/18 to 9,676 WTE in the third quarter of 2017/18.

A copy of Performance of the NHS provider sector for the month ended 31 December 2017 is attached.

NHS Improvement supports providers to reduce these rates. This includes programmes to reduce reliance on medicals locums and the development of new roles to support advanced clinical practice.

Information on the vacancy rates of ancillary staff is not available centrally.