MTAS: minister spouts (system dead, whoever showed it up is a criminal)

[Dr Adrian Midgley (In the office)]

WRITTEN MINISTERIAL STATEMENT

Recruitment to Medical Training



In my oral statement on 1 May 2007 (Column 1367) I notified the House 
that there had been two security breaches of the medical training 
application service (MTAS) that arose on 25th and 26th April.

MWR Infosecurity has now completed a full security review of the MTAS 
system. Action has been taken by the contractor (Methods) to address the 
weaknesses identified. Both MWR and CESG (Communications Electronic 
Security Group), the national technical authority for information 
assurance, have confirmed that appropriate and sufficiently 
comprehensive action has been taken. The site was therefore re-opened 
last week, restricted to postgraduate deaneries only, to support the 
next steps in the recruitment process.

Because the investigation has made it clear that criminal offences may 
have been committed, the MWR analysis and report have been given to the 
police.

Ongoing Recruitment process

Following the recommendations of the review group chaired by Professor 
Neil Douglas, every eligible applicant for postgraduate medical training 
has now been guaranteed at least one interview for their first 
preference post. An additional 15,500 interviews have therefore been 
arranged as part of Round 1 and are now taking place. I am extremely 
grateful to the consultants who have made themselves available for these 
additional interviews.
The review group met again on 9 May to consider the process of offering 
posts to candidates who are successful in their Round 1 applications. 
The group agreed that offers for the current round will be managed 
locally by individual deaneries, on the basis of published MMC guidance.

Offers will be made to successful candidates on a phased basis as 
interviews for each specialty are completed. Subject to the outcome of 
the current Judicial Review, the first offers for hospital specialities 
in England will be made on or after 21 May 2007, with all initial offers 
made by early June. This process of making offers will continue until 
late June 2007, at which time Round 1 will close, ensuring that 
candidates and employers have time to prepare for appointments 
commencing on 1 August 2007. Given the continuing concerns of junior 
doctors about MTAS, the system will not be used for matching candidates 
to training posts, but will continue to be used for national monitoring.

As we have stressed before, not all training posts will be filled in the 
current round and there will therefore be further substantial 
opportunities for those who are not successful initially. The review 
group has agreed that this further recruitment will be locally planned 
and managed by the deaneries. An announcement of the process will be 
made shortly. Deaneries are continuing to work with the NHS and the 
Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board to establish what 
additional training posts will be made available beyond the 23,000 
training posts already available across the UK.