The British government has introduced the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill to prioritise UK-trained medical graduates for specialty training posts in the National Health Service (NHS).
Secretary of State for Health Wes Streeting tabled the bill in the House of Commons on Tuesday to address what he described as the “catastrophic mismanagement” of the previous Conservative administration.
The law aims to reduce competition for specialty training posts between UK graduates and internationally trained medics, while protecting public investment in medical education.
The new law will prevent UK graduates from competing directly with overseas-trained doctors for specialty training positions that lead to advanced medical expertise.
Streeting said the measure is intended to protect the public investment in medical training and to secure a sustainable workforce for the NHS.
“British taxpayers spend 4 billion pounds training medics every year, so it makes little sense for many of them to then be left struggling to get speciality training places and fearing for their futures,” Streeting said.
“The catastrophic mismanagement of the system by the previous administration has left UK graduates competing with doctors from around the world. To protect our investment and give them a path to become the next generation of NHS doctors, we are taking a number of measures, including today introducing a bill to prioritise graduates from UK medical schools for specialty training places,” he added.
The move is expected to particularly affect international doctors, who form around 325,000 out of 1.5 million staff reported as non-British trained NHS medics in June 2025.
Streeting said the changes are expected to take effect this year, halving the number of doctors competing for each specialty post from four to two.
“Our NHS will never exclude international talent, and these changes will also prioritise doctors from overseas who have worked in the NHS for a significant period, but this will restore our home-grown medics to the level playing field they deserve and ensure a sustainable medical workforce in the NHS,” Streeting said.
The British Medical Association (BMA) cautiously welcomed the bill for including protections for IMGs who have completed foundation or core training in the UK or have indefinite leave to remain (ILR), EU settled status, or British dual citizenship.
While International Medical Graduates (IMG) doctors from outside these categories can continue to apply for specialty training, their applications will not be prioritised.
“We are concerned about the effect on doctors with significant NHS experience who have trained abroad. We’ve made clear that any change to specialty training post applications would need to protect and recognise those international doctors with significant experience; something that this legislation at present does not go far enough on,” said Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA resident doctors committee.
“We are also pleased that safeguards are going to be put in place to ensure those IMGs who have supported and worked in the NHS for a significant amount of time will not be penalised either. The UK provides some of the best medical training in the world – we hope it continues to attract the very best from the UK and elsewhere, but at least the new system will be fairer and better value for taxpayers’ investment now than it has been for the last few years,” the BMA added.
