Member

In a sense, the pressures would be ameliorated to the extent that the pipeline of specialty training posts is expanded sooner rather than later. I would like to press the Minister on what the 2026 incremental expansion is going to be. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said on 10 December that it was possible to see an expansion of 1,000 specialty training places for the 2026 round as part of a 4,000 increase over the next several years. I am sure that number was grounded in an empirical assessment of what the NHS needs. If it was felt on 10 December that the NHS would need 1,000 more specialty training places for 2026, can the Minister confirm that it will get them? Can she also confirm that they will be deployed in areas where they are most needed and that arbitrary bans on recruiting to some of those posts will be removed?