Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to implement the recommendations in the Report of the Independent Working Time Regulations Taskforce to the Department of Health.

The Department commissioned Health Education England (HEE) to take forward the recommendations of the taskforce led by Professor Sir Norman Williams into the impact of the European Working Time Directive on the training of junior doctors.

Following the initial findings of the HEE working group, set up to consider the recommendations of the taskforce, HEE is working on gathering more detailed analyses of the General Medical Council data and research on the extended surgical team, along with further work to develop rota designs and pilots to enhance surgical training. This work now forms part of HEE’s programme of work on the shape of training, which looks at potential reforms to the structure of postgraduate medical education and training across the United Kingdom.