Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will undertake an investigation of the arrangements for training nurses for the purposes of raising the standard of nursing in NHS hospitals. [7083]

Anne Milton MP: The vast majority of our nurses provide excellent care, however ongoing education and training is vital to keeping standards high.

The Department has been working with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to develop an explicit set of statements which will outline what good nursing care looks like. This work will be ready in the autumn and will apply to the entire nursing workforce, including health care assistants.

We are determined to raise professional standards at every opportunity and to work with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the RCN to achieve this.

The arrangement for the training of nurses is regularly reviewed.