Late last year, we wrote to the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) raising concerns about the 2024 NHS staff survey.

In its response, the OSR said it had advised NHS England to provide clearer guidance and definitions to survey respondents and told us NHS England had committed to review terminology used in the 2025 survey.

The 2025 staff survey is now underway.

While some improvements have been made, we remain concerned that certain questions still limit the NHS’s ability to identify and address discrimination and may expose NHS organisations to legal risk under the Public Sector Equality Duty.