Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the equity of access to preference informed allocation for foundation year posts between UK graduates and international medical graduates.

We have introduced the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill to deliver the Government’s commitment in the 10-Year Health Plan to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training places. Alongside UK graduates, the bill prioritises graduates from Ireland and graduates of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, reflecting our obligations under international agreements with these countries.

We expect that all eligible prioritised applicants for the foundation programme in 2026 will be offered a place. Non-prioritised applicants will still be able to apply and will be offered places if vacancies remain after prioritised applicants have received offers.