During Health Questions in the House of Commons on Tuesday 10 June I challenged the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, about the rapidly increasing costs of agency workers in the NHS.

Foundation Trusts spent £1.4 billion last year on agency and contract workers – a staggering 160% higher than they planned. Labour warned that the costs of agency workers would increase when nurses jobs and training places were cut.

It’s clear that NHS finances are going backwards under this Government, and that spending on agency workers is out of control – but Ministers have no plan to deal with it.

The exchange in the Official Report is here.