Scottish medical training statistics: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for the following information for the last 5 years, if available:

A) The numbers of those completing a medicine degree at university each year

B) The number of specialism/training posts for each area

C) The average number of people applying to one specialism job

D) The amount of people who ended up having to go on a "non-training post" due to not getting accepted into their specialism

E) The amount of people who have completed there f1 and f2 years and have moved/relocated

F) Is the increase of medicine places at university being matched by an increase in posts and jobs?

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

Question A: The information you have requested is publicly available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) specifically at https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-51, filtering accordingly by level 3 and Scotland. In line with the duty to advise and assist the answer to your question in respect of Scottish Medical Schools is as follows:

Academic year	Total
AY2020/21	1,315
AY2021/22	1,375
AY2022/23	1,400
AY2023/24	1,475
AY2024/25	1,565

Question B: The information you have requested is publicly available from the NHS Education for Scotland website, specifically at Recruitment Statistics | Scottish Medical Training. The appropriate links for recruitment data for the past 5 years are at the bottom of the page.

As such, I hereby provide you with formal notice under section 25(1) of FOISA as we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Question C: The information you have requested is publicly available from the NHS England website, specifically at Competition ratios | Medical Hub which holds UK-wide data for the last 5 years.

As such, I hereby provide you with formal notice under section 25(1) of FOISA as we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Question D: While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reasons why we do not have the information is because we don’t collect it.

As such, I hereby provide you with formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

Question E: Some of the information you have requested is publicly available through the UK Foundation Programme website. This can specifically be found at the links named ‘F2 career destination reports 2010-2019 and 2024-2025’ Reports - UK Foundation Programme. Unfortunately, some of the data is not available through the website as the survey was stopped in 2020 due to COVID-19. This was then re-instated in 2024.

Further information that may relate to your request can be found in the 53rd report of the Review Body on Doctors and Dentists Remuneration on pages 69-70 Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration, and pages 36-37 in the 2022 State of medical education and practice in the UK report The state of medical education and practice in the UK: The workforce report 2022.

As such, I hereby provide you with formal notice under section 25(1) of FOISA as we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Finally, I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

Question F: We have interpreted ‘posts and jobs’ in your question to be Foundation posts. The answer to your question is that Scottish Government has increased the level of Foundation training posts being funded to account for the increased output from Medical Schools. An additional 252 Foundation places have also been created since 2021 (51 in 2021, 54 in 2022, 48 in 2024 and 99 in 2025) which is an approximate 30% increase, with a further 72 places to be added in 2026.

In addition to this, I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202600503588 -Information Released - Annex

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