Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total number of medical school places compared to the total number of resident doctor training places in each of the past five years for which data are available.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to training the staff we need to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. This is central to the vision in our 10 Year Plan. The following table shows the size of the medical school intake in England for each of the last five annual intakes available, the number of foundation programme trainees in years one and two in England, and the number of core and run through level one specialty training posts offered across all specialty pathways in England:
Year | Entrants to first year medicine courses in England | Foundation programme trainees in England, for years 1 and 2 combined | Total number of core and run-through level one specialty medical training posts offered each year in England |
2020 | 8,405 | 12,243 | 8,081 |
2021 | 8,485 | 12,475 | 8,494 |
2022 | 7,625 | 12,574 | 7,936 |
2023 | 7,820 | 13,004 | 7,810 |
2024 | 8,045 | 14,104 | 7,929 |
Sources: the Office for Students: Medical and Dental Students survey 2024, available at the Office for Students’ website in an online only format, the National Training Survey from the General Medical Council, available at the General Medical Council’s website in an online only format, and the Specialty Training Places: NHS England, Fill Rates dataset, available at the NHS.UK website in an online only format.
Notes:
In 2020 and 2021 the Government temporarily lifted the cap on medical school places for students who completed A-Levels and who had an offer from a university in England to study medicine, subject to their grades.
The UK Foundation Programme Office works to ensure that all eligible applicants receive a foundation training place.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many medical graduates did not continue training by taking a speciality as a resident doctor in (1) 2023–24, and (2) 2024–25.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Medical graduates initially complete a two-year foundation programme after their graduation. It is common for doctors not to progress from the completion of the second year of their foundation programme directly into specialty training. The following table shows the proportion of doctors in year two of their foundation programme who had not progressed into medical specialty training programmes within each 12-month period of the end of their foundation training, in each of the last 10 years:
Foundation second year | Years since the second year of foundation | ||||
One | Two | Three | Four | Five | |
2014 | 42.6% | 20.8% | 12.5% | 9.9% | 8.6% |
2015 | 49.1% | 24.4% | 14.1% | 10.2% | 9.0% |
2016 | 54.2% | 28.9% | 16.3% | 11.6% | 10.1% |
2017 | 59.3% | 29.8% | 16.4% | 11.4% | 9.7% |
2018 | 62.5% | 33.1% | 17.4% | 11.8% | 10.3% |
2019 | 66.4% | 36.5% | 19.6% | 12.7% | 10.6% |
2020 | 69.3% | 40.5% | 22.6% | 14.3% | |
2021 | 70.4% | 43.7% | 25.3% | ||
2022 | 75.1% | 47.7% | |||
2023 | 77.6% | ||||
Source: General Medical Council, Education Data Tool Progression Reports, available on the General Medical Council’s website, in an online only format.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many student doctors received their first choice for speciality training in (1) 2023, and (2) 2024.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Medical students completing their studies will initially apply to a two-year foundation programme of employment, and after completing that they will be able to apply to enter medical specialty training.
The Department does not hold information on doctors completing foundation year placements and entering specialty training as doctors are not required to rank applications where they are applying across multiple specialties. However, many individual specialties do utilise a single national process where geographical locations can be ranked.
The United Kingdom’s Foundation Programme Office does publish information on the success of medical graduates in accessing foundation programme placement choices. This shows that 84% of the 10,634 applicants across the UK got their first preference foundation school for the 2025 foundation programme. This compares to 75% of the 9,702 applicants in the 2024 foundation programme.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total cost to the NHS of employing locum doctors in England in each of the past five years for which data are available.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To date, NHS England has published reports to Quarter three of the 2024/25 financial year. The following table shows the total cost to the National Health Service of employing locum doctors in England in each of the past five years, up until Quarter three of the 2024/25:
Year | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Total | £919,000,000 | £1,012,000,000 | £1,140,000,000 | £1,133,000,000 | £950,000,000 |
Source: Provider Finance Returns.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) doctors, and (2) nurses, who were trained in the UK left the UK within five years of completing their training to work abroad in (a) 2023–24, and (b) 2024–25.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to monitor the implementation of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, British Thoracic Society and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network asthma guidelines, published in November 2024, and if so, whether they plan to make the data publicly available.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP), on behalf of NHS England, commissions a national audit across respiratory care, which includes asthma. All data from the audit is published and available at the HQIP’s website, in an online only format.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the British Thoracic Society (BTS), and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN) published a new collaborative guideline for asthma in November 2024. The NICE is working with the BTS, the SIGN, NHS England, and others to review the resources available to support implementation of the guideline, and plans to publish a respiratory toolkit.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the recommendations in the Infected Blood Inquiry report, what assessment they have made of the safety and efficacy of modern plasma-derived therapies.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is considering Sir Brian Langstaff’s recommendations, including recommendation 9 that relates to the use of alternatives to plasma-derived medicines. We will provide an update to Parliament on the progress we are making by the end of the year, as the Inquiry recommends.
In April 2021, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) reviewed the latest scientific evidence available on the safety of donor plasma from the United Kingdom and was able to lift the ban on its use for immunoglobulin-based medicines; the ban had been in place since the mid-1990s due to concerns about over the potential spread of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob (vCJD) disease. This was followed by a review of and lifting of the ban on albumins, also derived from UK donor plasma.
Both immunoglobulin and albumin are critical medicines for the National Health Service, with approximately 17,000 patients in England relying on immunoglobulins each year but these products are in short supply globally. Following the MHRA view that UK plasma is safe, the Department set up the Plasma for Medicines programme to increase our self-sufficiency and to protect vulnerable patients from the risk of global supply shocks. The first UK donor plasma was shipped for manufacture into medicines in August 2024 and these will be available to NHS patients from January 2025.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they intend to implement recommendation 9(e) of the Infected Blood Inquiry report while maintaining consistency with existing NHS England commissioning guidelines, continuing to improve standards of care and quality of life, and promoting confidence in the safety and efficacy of all licensed medicines for people with rare bleeding disorders.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I recognise that the findings of the inquiry’s final report are deeply shocking, and the Government is committed to acting on the findings of the Infected Blood Inquiry.
The Government is considering Sir Brian Langstaff’s recommendations, and will provide an update to Parliament on the progress we are making to respond to the inquiry’s recommendations by the end of the year, as the inquiry recommends.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they interpret the phrase "where clinically appropriate" in recommendation 9(e) of the Infected Blood Inquiry report, and how this will preserve patient choice and clinical judgement based on the latest clinical evidence.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I recognise that the findings of the inquiry’s final report are deeply shocking, and the Government is committed to acting on the findings of the Infected Blood Inquiry.
The Government is considering Sir Brian Langstaff’s recommendations, and will provide an update to Parliament on the progress we are making to respond to the inquiry’s recommendations by the end of the year, as the inquiry recommends.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications of the recommendations in the Infected Blood Inquiry report for the MHRA as regulator of medicines in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I recognise that the findings of the inquiry’s final report are deeply shocking, and the Government is committed to acting on the findings of the Infected Blood Inquiry.
The Government is considering Sir Brian Langstaff’s recommendations, and will provide an update to Parliament on the progress we are making to respond to the inquiry’s recommendations by the end of the year, as the inquiry recommends.