Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether overseas doctors with applications pending to register to practise medicine in the UK at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic have had their applications processed; and whether those whose applications were approved have been allowed to come to the UK.

The General Medical Council took steps to ensure that doctors’ registration was not delayed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Anyone who submitted an application to register at the start of the pandemic, or who subsequently became eligible and applied, has had their application processed as normal.

The Department does not hold information on whether those whose applications were approved have been allowed to come to the United Kingdom.