I n the last issue of the BJN, the link between patient safety and nurse staffing levels was highlighted (Glasper, 2016). Healthcare staffing is currently under the spotlight, with the media reporting that the NHS has 70 000 fewer staff than the Government previously thought. According to The Guardian, this represents, among others, 15 000 fewer nurses and 3000 fewer doctors (Campbell, 2016). However, the Government has recognised the looming crisis of nurse staffing in the NHS .In October 2015 it commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), a non-departmental public organisation linked to the Home Office whose role it is to advise the Government on migration issues and review whether there is a shortage of nurses or specific nursing roles that could filled by non-European Economic Area (EEA) migration. Nurses were subsequently placed on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) (Gov. uk, 2015) on a temporary basis, pending MAC's review of the evidence (SOL is a list of positions where there are not enough resident workers to fill the available jobs in that particular sector). In March 2016, MAC published its report, entitled Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) partial review: shortage occupation list and nursing.