Written question asked by Andrew George (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 8 March 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 12 March 2007. It was answered by Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Labour) on Monday, 26 March 2007 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Midwives

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many registered midwives (a) left the NHS, (b) returned to the NHS and (c) were made redundant in each of the last 12 years for which records are available; and how many of these posts were not then filled or replaced.

Answer: The number of registered midwives who left the national health service in the last 12 years is not collected centrally.Since 1999 over 1,200 midwives had returned to the NHS as at March 2004.Information on redundancies was collected for the first time last year. There were nine compulsory midwife redundancies in England in the nine months up to 31 December 2006.This needs to be seen in the context of the last census showing there were 24,808 midwives employed in the NHS in England an increase of 2,423 (10.8 per cent.) since 1997.Information on how may of these posts were not then filled or replaced is not collected centrally.

Secondary information