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General Practitioners: Recruitment

Asked by Clive JonesLiberal DemocratDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled Answered 11 March 2025UIN 29832

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to extend funding for the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme for financial year 2025-26.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock

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.

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