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Written question asked by Sharon Hodgson (Labour) on Monday, 19 February 2024, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 22 February 2024 (named day). A holding answer was provided on Thursday, 22 February 2024. A substantive answer was provided by Andrew Stephenson (Conservative) on Tuesday, 2 April 2024 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.


Agency Nurses: Expenditure

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS England spent on agency nurses in each of the last five years.

Answer

The amount spent on agency nurses by year for each of the last five years is set out in the table below.

Financial Year

Agency (nursing) spend

2018-19

£843 million

2019-20

£879 million

2020-21

£838 million

2021-22

£1.1 billion

2022-23

£1.37 billion

The Long Term Workforce Plan sets out a path to reduce the National Health Service’s reliance on agency. We estimate that the reliance on temporary staffing in FTE terms will reduce from 9% in 2021/22 to around 5% from 2032/33 onwards, with mostly bank staff fulfilling the requirement for temporary staffing.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
14504
Session
2023-24
Subjects
Agency nurses Expenditure
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk