Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) retain junior doctors in the NHS after their F1 and F2 training and (b) ensure there are enough core medical trainee positions available to retain junior doctors after their foundation training.

The Government is delivering a range of initiatives to support the retention and wellbeing of junior doctors in the National Health Service, for example through the Enhancing Junior Doctors’ Working Lives programme led by NHS England.

In addition, the NHS Retention Programme, also led by NHS England is working to understand why staff, including junior doctors, are leaving, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay whilst supporting their health and wellbeing.

The Government has also taken action to increase the number of speciality training places, include core positions. For those who applied to begin training in 2022, Health Education England (HEE) invested in more than 750 additional training posts across all speciality programmes, including core positions. In January this year, HEE announced that nearly 900 additional medical specialty training posts have been created for this year.