Oral Answers to Questions

Katie Lam Excerpts

Tuesday 14th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I would be delighted to. Let us arrange a date.

[Katie Lam (Weald of Kent) (Con)]

T9.   The changes that the Government made in January to prioritise British graduates for NHS training places were very welcome indeed, but the current system of random allocation demoralises and disincentivises our brightest graduates, and it causes profound uncertainty for people at the start of their career. Will the Secretary of State consider changing the process, so that those places are instead allocated on merit?

[Wes Streeting]

The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 is making a difference. It has reduced competition from four to one to less than two to one, a fact that the British Medical Association might wish to acknowledge. We are absolutely up for looking at that issue as part of the workforce plan. I suspect that we will have to do that without the BMA, rather than with it, since it will be out on strike while we are getting on with governing.