Important Update: Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act becomes law
The Government’s Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act has now been passed by Parliament and become law. The Act brings in new rules which prioritise UK medical graduates for foundation training and give preference to UK graduates and doctors with significant NHS experience for specialty training.
The Government has confirmed that these changes will take immediate effect. This includes recruitment to all foundation and specialty training programmes commencing from August 2026.
We encourage applicants to continue checking our website for further updates on how this will be implemented which we will share as soon as possible.
We are unable to respond to individual enquiries regarding the rationale for the introduction of the bill.
Please also refer to the NHS England Frequently Asked Questions for information on the bill and background on its introduction.
Priority Statuses
All applicants to Round 1 specialties with an active application were emailed their priority status on Friday, 6 March 2026.
All applicants to Round 2 specialties with an active application were emailed their priority status on Tuesday, 17 March 2026.
If you did not receive this email, please email [email protected] so this can be resent to you.
Page last reviewed: 17 March 2026
Next review due: 17 March 2027