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.

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.