Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the points-based immigration system in the recruitment and retention of UK-trained newly qualified doctors.

No recent specific assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the points-based immigration system in the recruitment and retention of United Kingdom-trained newly qualified doctors.

However, the number of applications to foundation and speciality training has increased over recent years, both from people graduating from UK medical schools, UK medical graduates, and from graduates of international medical schools, international medical graduates.

For specialty training, the number of international medical graduates applying for places has significantly increased since 2020. Data from the General Medical Council (GMC) shows that the number of non-UK trained doctors applying for Core Training Year One and Specialty Training Year One places has increased from 5,326 in 2019 to 18,857 in 2024, a 254% increase. Over the same period, the number of UK trained applicants increased from 8,836 to 11,319, a 28% increase.

Internationally trained doctors may also be seeking employment outside of medical specialty training posts and GMC data shows that the proportion of doctors taking up or returning to a GMC licence to practice who were trained outside of the UK was 57% in 2019, which has increased to 66% in 2024.