Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of anaesthetists across the UK.

We set out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England published in July 2025 that over the next three years we will create 1,000 new specialty training posts with a focus on specialties where there is greatest need.

On 8 December, the Government put an offer in writing to the British Medical Association (BMA) Resident Doctors Committee, which was rejected. The offer would have increased the number of training posts over the next three years from the 1,000 announced in the 10-Year Health Plan to 4,000, bringing forward 1,000 of these training posts to start in 2026. The BMA have rejected the Government's offer, so that is not going ahead. The Government will consider its next steps.