NHS: Recruitment
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS providers are obligated to (a) advertise residency positions for British nationals before foreign nationals and (b) hire British residents before overseas residents.
Answered by Karin Smyth
The decision to remove the Resident Labour Market Test for doctors in 2020 has meant that more international medical graduates have also been able to apply for speciality training places, increasing the number of candidates for roles.
Residencies, or speciality training positions, are advertised nationally, and the process is administered by a lead deanery on behalf of the four nations of the United Kingdom. There is no obligation on National Health Service providers to advertise residency positions for British nationals before foreign nationals, or to hire British residents before overseas residents. The rules and criteria for recruitment into higher specialty training are agreed by the Medical and Dental Recruitment and Selection committees on behalf of the four statutory education bodies of the UK and must meet standards required by the General Medical Council. Working with NHS England, we continue to keep the selection process for all applicants to medical speciality training under review.
Data provided by NHS England shows that in 2024, 14,620 graduates from UK medical schools applied for medical specialty training posts. Of these 1,299 were unsuccessful or unappointable in any of their applications as individuals can make multiple applications. A further 1,476 UK graduates were deemed appointable at interview but did not receive any offers due to post availability.
Information on medical specialty recruitment in 2021, 2022 and 2023 is published by NHS England. This includes information for each individual medical specialty programme on the number of applications made, the number of appointable applicants, the number of offers made and the number of accepted roles. The information is available by nationality group and country of qualification. The published data does not present this information across all specialties together as presented for the 2024 round. The information is available at the following link:
Verbatim has judged this answer against the question that was actually asked — answered, partly answered, or evaded. Sign in to see the verdict →