Prioritisation for 2027 specialty training recruitment

Regulations laid on 14 September 2026 will direct how prioritisation is applied for specialty recruitment from 2027.

These regulations are being made under the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026, which became law on 6 March 2026 and apply to all specialty recruitment processes apart from ST1 Public Health.

The Medical Training (Prioritisation for Specialty Training Programmes) Regulations 2026

These regulations specify persons who must be prioritised for interviews and offers for places on UK specialty training programmes from 2027 onwards, in addition to those individuals already prioritised under the Act.  The categories of persons described in the regulations are:

• a British citizen, 
• a Commonwealth citizen who has the right of abode in the United Kingdom under section 2 of the Immigration Act 1971(a),
• an Irish citizen who does not require leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom under that Act,
• a person with indefinite leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom, or
• a person who has leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom which was granted by virtue of residence scheme immigration rules within the meaning given by section 17 of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020(b)

The regulations do not amend the other categories of person already prioritised for specialty training places under the Act which are detailed below.

Eligibility for prioritisation

For all recruitment rounds in 2026 and 2027, applicants will be prioritised based on the following criteria:

Priority groups

Applicants will be advised of their priority status prior to when offers begin for each recruitment round.
There are two statuses:

• In the priority group.
• Not in the priority group.

There is no prioritisation hierarchy within these groups; all applicants within the priority group have equal priority.

The number of applicants in each priority group will not be made available during the recruitment process.

Applicants will be given the opportunity to request a review of their status before the offers process for each recruitment round commences. It will not be possible to review priority statuses once offers for a recruitment round have commenced, even if offers for a particular specialty have not commenced.

From 2027 recruitment, all information to determine priority status will be collected in the application form and status determination will be automated. This will be displayed to applicants in Oriel.  Applicants who believe that they have been given the incorrect prioritisation status have the right to request a review.  This must be completed before shortlisting processes commence. The deadline to request a review is:

Recruitment round	Application window closes	Deadline for requesting review of prioritisation status
Recruitment round 2027 Round 1	Application window closes Thursday, 19 November 2026	Deadline for requesting review of prioritisation status Tuesday, 24 November 2026 at 17:00 (UK time)
Recruitment round 2027 Round 2	Application window closes Thursday, 10 December 2026	Deadline for requesting review of prioritisation status Tuesday, 15 December 2026 at 17:00 (UK time)
Recruitment round 2027 Round 3	Application window closes Thursday, 29 July 2027	Deadline for requesting review of prioritisation status Tuesday, 3 August 2027 at 17:00 (UK time)

It is important that applicants review their allocated prioritisation status in a timely manner, as requests for review of status will not be considered after the deadline for the recruitment round has passed.

Prioritisation stages for 2027 recruitment

For Round 1 of 2027 Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF) recruitment, prioritisation will apply at the offer stage only.

For all other specialty recruitment processes apart from ST1 Public Health, prioritisation will apply at the following stages:

• Offer of an interview.
• Offer of a place on a specialty training programme.

Interviews

If you are invited to interview but are not in the priority group, you should still attend.
If you are appointable, you may still be offered a post, once all the applicants in the priority group have been considered.

Ranking and offers

Prioritisation does not affect the rank applicants receive following interview; ranks are based on performance in the selection process only. 

Applicants in the priority group will be considered for offers in rank order before applicants that are not in the priority group. This is done during the offers matching process and is repeated each time offers matching takes place.

Prioritisation does not guarantee that applicants in the priority group will be made an offer as there are a finite number of posts available.

Applicants who are not in the priority group will be considered for offers when the list of appointable prioritised applicants has been exhausted and there are still vacancies remaining.

Special Circumstances

Applicants with approved special circumstances will be pre-allocated as detailed in the published special circumstances guidance.

If you are not in the priority group, you may still be pre allocated but only after all applicants in the priority group have been considered for offers. This may reduce our ability to pre-allocate you to a post in the region(s) you are restricted to.