Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether previous structured undergraduate clinical training in NHS hospitals will count towards the requirement in the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 that prioritised applicants for postgraduate medical training should have had significant experience of working in the NHS; and if so, to what extent.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 implements the Government’s commitment in the 10-Year Health Plan to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training places, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors with significant National Health Service experience for specialty training places.

For specialty training places starting in 2026, immigration statuses are being used as a proxy to capture applicants who are most likely to have significant experience working in the health service in the UK.

From 2027, under the Act, immigration status will no longer automatically determine priority for specialty training. Instead, the act provides a power to specify in regulations any additional groups who will be prioritised by reference to criteria indicating significant experience as a doctor in the health service, or by reference to immigration status. The Department is working with NHS England, the devolved administrations, and other partners on how best to define and evidence significant NHS experience as part of the development of those regulations. We will set out next steps in due course.

The Act is not designed to, and does not, exclude any eligible applicants from applying for medical foundation or specialty training. Non-prioritised graduates can still apply, and they will be offered places if vacancies remain after prioritised applicants have received offers. For individuals who do not secure a foundation year one post this year, there are alternative routes to pursuing a medical career in the UK. These include obtaining full General Medical Council (GMC) registration through the established GMC pathways, such as completing an approved internship in the country where they trained and then entering the UK healthcare system through applying to a locally employed doctor role or another non-training post.

The Government has no plans to introduce transitional arrangements for the implementation of the Act.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether students who were already enrolled in medical degree courses recognised by the General Medical Council before the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 was passed will receive transitional or grandfathering protection

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 implements the Government’s commitment in the 10-Year Health Plan to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training places, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors with significant National Health Service experience for specialty training places.

For specialty training places starting in 2026, immigration statuses are being used as a proxy to capture applicants who are most likely to have significant experience working in the health service in the UK.

From 2027, under the Act, immigration status will no longer automatically determine priority for specialty training. Instead, the act provides a power to specify in regulations any additional groups who will be prioritised by reference to criteria indicating significant experience as a doctor in the health service, or by reference to immigration status. The Department is working with NHS England, the devolved administrations, and other partners on how best to define and evidence significant NHS experience as part of the development of those regulations. We will set out next steps in due course.

The Act is not designed to, and does not, exclude any eligible applicants from applying for medical foundation or specialty training. Non-prioritised graduates can still apply, and they will be offered places if vacancies remain after prioritised applicants have received offers. For individuals who do not secure a foundation year one post this year, there are alternative routes to pursuing a medical career in the UK. These include obtaining full General Medical Council (GMC) registration through the established GMC pathways, such as completing an approved internship in the country where they trained and then entering the UK healthcare system through applying to a locally employed doctor role or another non-training post.

The Government has no plans to introduce transitional arrangements for the implementation of the Act.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what data they collect on variation in diagnostic waiting times between Integrated Care Boards; and whether those data will be published routinely.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Waiting times for 15 key diagnostic tests (DM01) are collected and published monthly, reported two months in arrears. Diagnostic performance is reported as the proportion of diagnostic waits of over six weeks. Statistics on DM01 performance variation by integrated care board are published on the NHS.UK website in an online-only format.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether there is a realistic pathway for current British medical students to access specialist training either abroad or at home following the implementation of the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 implements the Government’s commitment in the 10-Year Health Plan to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training places, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors with significant National Health Service experience for specialty training places.

For specialty training places starting in 2026, immigration statuses are being used as a proxy to capture applicants who are most likely to have significant experience working in the health service in the UK.

From 2027, under the Act, immigration status will no longer automatically determine priority for specialty training. Instead, the act provides a power to specify in regulations any additional groups who will be prioritised by reference to criteria indicating significant experience as a doctor in the health service, or by reference to immigration status. The Department is working with NHS England, the devolved administrations, and other partners on how best to define and evidence significant NHS experience as part of the development of those regulations. We will set out next steps in due course.

The Act is not designed to, and does not, exclude any eligible applicants from applying for medical foundation or specialty training. Non-prioritised graduates can still apply, and they will be offered places if vacancies remain after prioritised applicants have received offers. For individuals who do not secure a foundation year one post this year, there are alternative routes to pursuing a medical career in the UK. These include obtaining full General Medical Council (GMC) registration through the established GMC pathways, such as completing an approved internship in the country where they trained and then entering the UK healthcare system through applying to a locally employed doctor role or another non-training post.

The Government has no plans to introduce transitional arrangements for the implementation of the Act.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to consult British medical students currently studying on overseas campuses of British universities before finalising the regulations due to be made in 2027 under the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 implements the Government’s commitment in the 10-Year Health Plan to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training places, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors with significant National Health Service experience for specialty training places.

For specialty training places starting in 2026, immigration statuses are being used as a proxy to capture applicants who are most likely to have significant experience working in the health service in the UK.

From 2027, under the Act, immigration status will no longer automatically determine priority for specialty training. Instead, the act provides a power to specify in regulations any additional groups who will be prioritised by reference to criteria indicating significant experience as a doctor in the health service, or by reference to immigration status. The Department is working with NHS England, the devolved administrations, and other partners on how best to define and evidence significant NHS experience as part of the development of those regulations. We will set out next steps in due course.

The Act is not designed to, and does not, exclude any eligible applicants from applying for medical foundation or specialty training. Non-prioritised graduates can still apply, and they will be offered places if vacancies remain after prioritised applicants have received offers. For individuals who do not secure a foundation year one post this year, there are alternative routes to pursuing a medical career in the UK. These include obtaining full General Medical Council (GMC) registration through the established GMC pathways, such as completing an approved internship in the country where they trained and then entering the UK healthcare system through applying to a locally employed doctor role or another non-training post.

The Government has no plans to introduce transitional arrangements for the implementation of the Act.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government on the basis of what evidence a period of five years was been chosen as the period necessary to demonstrate "significant NHS experience" for the purposes of the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 implements the Government’s commitment in the 10-Year Health Plan to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training places, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors with significant National Health Service experience for specialty training places.

For specialty training places starting in 2026, immigration statuses are being used as a proxy to capture applicants who are most likely to have significant experience working in the health service in the UK.

From 2027, under the Act, immigration status will no longer automatically determine priority for specialty training. Instead, the act provides a power to specify in regulations any additional groups who will be prioritised by reference to criteria indicating significant experience as a doctor in the health service, or by reference to immigration status. The Department is working with NHS England, the devolved administrations, and other partners on how best to define and evidence significant NHS experience as part of the development of those regulations. We will set out next steps in due course.

The Act is not designed to, and does not, exclude any eligible applicants from applying for medical foundation or specialty training. Non-prioritised graduates can still apply, and they will be offered places if vacancies remain after prioritised applicants have received offers. For individuals who do not secure a foundation year one post this year, there are alternative routes to pursuing a medical career in the UK. These include obtaining full General Medical Council (GMC) registration through the established GMC pathways, such as completing an approved internship in the country where they trained and then entering the UK healthcare system through applying to a locally employed doctor role or another non-training post.

The Government has no plans to introduce transitional arrangements for the implementation of the Act.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what arrangements are in place to ensure independent assessment of the performance of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) following the abolition of NHS England; and who will be responsible for publishing comparative performance data between ICBs.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Health Bill, subject to parliamentary passage, proposes to transfer the requirement to conduct annual assessments of integrated care boards from NHS England to my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and to focus assessments on the statutory functions of these organisations.

The Health Bill also proposes that my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, must publish a report each financial year containing a summary of the results of each performance assessment conducted with respect to that year.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of current mechanisms for identifying and responding to recurring patient safety failures across NHS trusts.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to improving patient safety across the National Health Service and ensuring that the system identifies, responds to and learns from recurring safety failures. NHS trusts are subject to a range of regulatory and contractual requirements to identify patterns of harm, manage risks and take action to improve services.

The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework, which became a contractual requirement for all NHS trusts from 1 April 2024, has reformed how organisations respond to patient safety incidents. It supports a more proportionate, transparent and compassionate approach, focused on understanding how incidents happen, identifying local risks and priorities, and ensuring learning leads to improvement.

The Learn from Patient Safety Events service collects and analyses information on patient safety incidents across the NHS, with NHS England continuingly reviewing incidents to identify emerging or under-recognised risks. Where appropriate, these risks can be acted on through National Patient Safety Alerts, national guidance or work with partner organisations, such as the Care Quality Commission.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the resilience of NHS medicines supply chains following recent shortages including Creon, insulin, ADHD medicine and blood pressure treatments; and whether they have identified any other medicines considered at particular risk of future disruption.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

There are approximately 14,000 licensed medicines and the overwhelming majority are in good supply. Medicine supply chains are complex, global and highly regulated and there are several reasons why supply can be disrupted, many of which are not specific to the United Kingdom and outside of Government control. These include manufacturing difficulties, access to raw materials, sudden demand spikes, or distribution and regulatory issues.

The Department uses a sophisticated, multi-layered approach to monitor, assess, and respond to medicines at risk of future supply disruption. Intelligence is drawn from a wide range of sources, including our existing communication channels with our partners in the National Health Service, suppliers, industry, and international partners. In 2020, the Department developed a global risk register which draws on information on medicines licensed in the UK to map manufacturing touchpoints within the supply chain. It is used to help understand medicines supply chains vulnerability and risk.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether current NICE appraisal processes are sufficient responsive to emerging treatments for rare diseases and advanced therapies.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government recognises the importance of patients with rare diseases being able to access effective new medicines. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) assesses whether medicines should be funded by the National Health Service. Its process has been proven to be suitable for rare disease medicines, including advanced therapies, where companies work constructively with NICE and NHS England. Since March 2024, NICE has recommended 89% of the rare disease medicines it has appraised for some or all eligible patients.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what governance arrangements will oversee the development and implementation of the NHS single patient record; and what independent scrutiny will be applied.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The development and implementation of the Single Patient Record (SPR) will be overseen through the governance arrangements for the Transforming and Connecting Care (TCC) Programme. These provide accountability for design and delivery, with oversight from the Senior Responsible Officer, Programme Director and Programme Design Director. The Programme Board will provide overall governance, strategic leadership and decision-making authority.

Delivery will be overseen by the TCC Programme Delivery Group, which will focus on how and when programme outcomes are delivered. Design will be overseen by the TCC Programme Design Authority, which will assure what the programme is delivering, including coherence across products, architecture, clinical safety, cyber security, information governance, policy and transformation. SPR project-level governance will report into these.

Independent scrutiny will be provided through advisory and assurance routes, including the Clinical Advisory Group and the Data Transformation Check and Challenge Group. The programme also engages with external organisations and expert bodies as part of its governance and assurance arrangements, including participation by the National Cyber Security Centre in relevant design authority discussions to provide specialist cyber security expertise and challenge.

These advisory, assurance and external challenge mechanisms will support robust scrutiny throughout the design and implementation of the SPR, complemented by additional independent assurance commissioned at key points in the programme.

Found: onto other courses121False2026-09-21 00:00:002350FalsePakistan Youth and Community Association58 Earl Howe

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