Nearly half of all new entrants to the UK's nursing register come from overseas, according to a new report commissioned by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

Party Response: Conservative

Shadow health and education secretary Tim Yeo said: "This is a worrying but unsurprising report which confirms our long-held concerns about the dangers of relying too heavily on the recruitment of overseas nurses and not doing enough to attract and retain home grown talent.  We are especially pleased that it highlights the unacceptable practice of unethical recruitment. If the government has nothing to hide on this issue, it should ban the NHS from using recruitment agencies which have not signed up to its own code of practice."

Party Response: Liberal Democrat

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Paul Burstow said: "This report should be a wake up call for the government. Overseas recruitment is their sticking plaster solution to the nurse recruitment problem.

"It is morally indefensible to aggressively recruit nurses from developing countries with their own health crises. It is also not a long-term solution to rely on overseas nurses to the detriment of UK recruitment. Other developed countries like the USA are also competing for the same pool of nurses. We need to grow our own and keep our own nurses in the UK".

Forum Response: Royal College of Nursing

General secretary of the RCN, Dr Beverly Malone, said: “Nurses from overseas make an invaluable contribution to the UK's health care system. In fact, without them, in terms of nursing numbers, we would have been running fast just to stand still. But we can't guarantee that these nurses will continue to want to come to live and work in the UK. Nor should we encourage the targeting of nurses from developing nations.

“UK employers are now starting to face stiff opposition from other countries such as the US and Canada who have their own nursing shortages. Put simply, is the policy of shoring up the UK's nursing workforce with overseas recruits sustainable?”