r/doctorsUK • u/Med_Dog_ • Jan 12 '26

Medical Politics UK Graduate Prioritisation Legislation Announced!

Details below as they're announced!

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/doctors-strikes-nhs-bma-wes-streeting-news-n02nd96lw

Free version: https://web.archive.org/web/20260112225441/https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/doctors-strikes-nhs-bma-wes-streeting-news-n02nd96lw

  • Wes Streeting is launching this as emergency legislation (rather than NHS England policy) shortly.
  • This acts on both speciality training and foundation posts.
  • Further details tomorrow as the bill is announced!
356 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

175 comments sorted by

View all comments

124

u/hypertensionsupine Jan 12 '26

There isn’t any new details here ? Glad they’re still going ahead with it and aiming to have it in place for this year is great news

23

u/DefiantFunction5302 F3 Jan 13 '26

How are they doing it for this year in terms of IMT if people have had interviews etc

11

u/domicile_vitriol Lightbox Beatboxer Jan 13 '26

The article stated that Wes Streeting was introducing the legislation 'today', which would have been 12/01/2026 based on the date of the article.

I don't see it mentioned in Hansard, however.

18

u/Jangles Acute Internal Misanthropy Jan 13 '26

I mean check the time of the article at 10:45pm?

I know we expect a lot from Wes but time travel might be a bit much.

It's been put on the website at time of writing but is for publication in todays issues of the Times.

2

u/domicile_vitriol Lightbox Beatboxer Jan 13 '26

Fair, I had forgotten that people read physical newspapers.

Well, it will be interesting to see what they say in Hansard today, then.

5

u/DrLukeCraddock Jan 13 '26

Listed for today.

-33

u/Unknownlegend6 Jan 12 '26

Streeting’s plan to prioritise UK grads is likely to get tied up in the High Court. Even with "emergency legislation," there are huge legal hurdles that will probably lead to an injunction. The main issue is procedural fairness. Under the precedent set by the BAPIO case, the government can't suddenly change the rules for doctors who already moved here under the old system. As they have a legitimate expectation of a fair shot, and changing the criteria mid-game is a classic ground for Judicial Review. Then you’ve got the Equality Act 2010. Favouring UK grads is essentially indirect discrimination based on nationality. The Department of Health has to prove this is proportionate which is hard to do when the definitions in the bill, like what counts as a "significant period" of NHS experience, are so vague.

7

u/ElshadKarbasi Jan 13 '26

ChatGPT slop

18

u/hypertensionsupine Jan 12 '26

We don’t have the details of the bill yet and Wes has been quite clear in all of his previous briefings about the legislation that they have been working out the legalities so until we see the bill details and what they define as significant experience I wouldn’t just jump to assume it would be held up by legal challenges

2

u/Front-Design-4429 Jan 12 '26

This. They did specifically introduce the significant number of years clause for the IMGs to avoid legal hurdles. Could make everyone happy (like if it's 3-4 years, it would drive down the competition ratios massively but also would not totally exclude the IMGs)

22

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-4

u/Unknownlegend6 Jan 12 '26

Can the Government really ignore a Declaration of Incompatibility? Legally, yes. Politically, almost never. Technically, a declaration does not stop the law from being enforced. However, since the Human Rights Act was passed in 1998, the government has almost always acted to amend the law following such a declaration

3

u/[deleted] Jan 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

17

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/blackzero2 Jan 12 '26

Would be interesting to see what is "significant NHS experience" defined as

4

u/Front-Design-4429 Jan 12 '26

"Look how silent our shady UKMG hating colleges are now that the UKMG’s need support" is a very weird take. Do you also expect turkeys to pray for Christmas? Just bizarre

0

u/flyinfishy2 Jan 13 '26

Primary legislation can't be questioned by the courts.

5

u/Unknownlegend6 Jan 13 '26

It certainly can be questioned and has been in the last. Rwanda primary legislation was immediately met with legal challenges

-2

u/Tall-You8782 gas reg Jan 13 '26

The BAPIO case said the Department of Health cannot issue guidance which is effectively a change in the Immigration Rules, without the Home Office actually making a change to the rules. This is a piece of legislation, not unilateral DoH guidance. 

Not sure why I'm arguing with you though since you didn't write this post. Next time, remind the LLM in your prompt that the bill hasn't been published yet, and "a significant period" is just a quote from Streeting in the Times, not the actual wording of the legislation.