Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of GPs recruited through the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme in (a) 2024 and (b) 2023 (i) in total and (ii) per integrated care board.

731 places were available on the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme in 2023, while 777 places were available in 2024. The data is not available at integrated care board level.

As set out on the NHS England website, a decision has been taken not to fund Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme places for their recruitment year, which is due to very high competition ratios and the need to prioritise budgets. Record numbers of applicants have applied to general practitioner specialty training in recent years, including in those areas where take up has been historically low, meaning that there is not currently a need to financially incentivise trainees to train in those areas.