Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what consideration his Department has given to introducing transitional arrangements for the implementation of UK graduate prioritisation in medical specialty recruitment for the 2025–26 recruitment cycle; and whether he will review the decision to assess applicants’ immigration or settlement status at the point of application rather than at the point of job offer, in cases where applicants will have Indefinite Leave to Remain by the time offers are made.

The Government does not plan to introduce transitional arrangements for the implementation of the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill.

For 2026 specialty training posts we have used immigration status as a reasonable proxy for National Health Service experience. Subject to parliamentary passage, the bill prioritises applicants at offer stage based on their immigration status at that point. Applicants will be able to update their application status where it has changed since they made their application. For specialty training posts starting from 2027 onwards, the immigration status category will not apply automatically. Instead, we will be able to make regulations to specify 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. We will set out next steps on these regulations in due course.