Debate contribution: Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill: Legislative Consent Motion

Debate contribution by Mr Mike Nesbitt on 24 February 2026.

MLA

Mr Mike Nesbitt

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

24 February 2026

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill: Legislative Consent Motion

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5404688

Read the official Assembly record

Text

As somebody who served on statutory Committees from 2011 until taking up this post in March 2024, I absolutely get the fact that Committees need the appropriate amount of time to scrutinise legislation, including LCMs. However, in defence of my departmental officials, I say that Mrs Dodds talked about the Bill going through the Commons on 27 January this year, and it was on 27 January this year that we sought clearance from the Executive Office through urgent procedure. Therefore, we moved as soon as we could. The delay was that a number of further information requests came out of the Executive Office, which had to be answered before we were able to get the LCM tabled for the Executive decision. It was cleared by the Executive on 12 February: the LCM was tabled on 12 February, and the letter to the Health Committee was issued on 12 February. Again, it is regrettable, but I make the point that it had to be green-lighted by people who were not within the Department at the time. The Chair asked for some reassurance with regard to section 75 and the Bill's impact, and I can tell him about that in the following terms. On disability, data shows that the Bill is unlikely to change the proportional representation of doctors with disabilities entering a foundation training programme. On race and differences in the ethnic profile of prioritised and non-prioritised applicants: overall, the impact will be that there is a greater proportion of white doctors in the foundation programme and fewer doctors from other ethnic groups. On sex, the Bill is likely to have a neutral impact on the proportion of females and males. Overall, the Bill is likely to have a neutral impact on representation of doctors by sexual orientation. On age, the Bill might slightly increase the representation of younger doctors. On religion, there are minor differences in the religious proportions of the priority group compared with the all-applicant group: differences typically within 1% of the all-applicant group. The Bill may also cause a very slight decrease in the proportional representation of foundation trainees in a marriage or in a civil partnership. On the impact on the headcount of people with primary medical qualifications, I can say that, in 2024, UK numbers were 1,671, Republic of Ireland numbers were 62 and international numbers were 405. Again on impact, NIMDTA has expanded its foundation programme to ensure that every graduate from Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University will be admitted to the course. Mr Donnelly wondered about monitoring and evaluation. That will be done in the normal way. A statistical analysis will be done of who is coming from UK schools and who is coming from ROI schools and of where there may be gaps. Will the Bill have an impact on hard-to-fill posts? We do not expect it to have a major negative impact on posts that are harder to fill. In fact, there is potential that the Bill may have a positive impact, should the prioritised applicants realise that, by applying to a post in a hard-to-fill speciality or location, they are increasing the prospects of their application being successful. On the mix of applicants and the regard in which I hold our international colleagues, I say that international medical graduates will continue to play a crucial role in health and social care delivery. Prioritisation does not mean that they will lose all their opportunities. In fact, in specialties such as core psychiatry, internal medicine and general practice, where there are often multiple vacancies, we are still likely to see strong opportunities for international graduates, as competition is not as intense in those specialties as it in others. I return for one moment to monitoring. In common with the introduction of significant changes in policy, the UK Government and officials here will make monitoring a priority for the demographic uptakes and fill rates under the new regime. I thank Members for their contributions and their support. I notice that that support is limited, or conditioned by the lack of scrutiny of the Bill, but I commend the legislative consent motion to the House.

692 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:03 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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