Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of doctors leaving the UK due to a lack of specialty training posts.

The Department has not made such a specific estimate. Data is published by NHS England on numbers of doctors leaving active service across National Health Service trusts and integrated care boards, but information collected on broad reasons for leaving is not detailed enough to report on drivers such as access to specialty training.

The General Medical Council (GMC) publishes data on staff leaving the register in its annual State of Medical Education and Practice in the United Kingdom publication. This shows that the proportion leaving the register in 2024 has remained stable at approximately 4% a year. When asked about reasons for leaving, the three main reasons cited to the GMC where ‘wanting to practice abroad’, ‘retirement’ and ‘wanting to live abroad’.