HC Deb 14 January 2003 vol 397 c516W
20. Tony Baldry

To as the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the retention of nurses. [90208]

Mr. Hutton

The Government are committed to retaining more staff in the national health service. As a result of the action we have taken on better pay, working conditions, and access to training and development vacancy rates for nurses are falling and the NHS Plan target for an extra 20,000 more nurses was met two years early. Since 1997, there are more than 40,000 extra nurses working in the NHS.