The Medical Training Application System (MTAS) was closed to applicants for specialist training posts in May 2007, although it remained accessible to deaneries after that time for monitoring and statistical purposes. This followed two security breaches to the system.
Improvements were then made to the security, following which the Communications Electronic Security Group, the national technical authority for information assurance, confirmed that appropriate and sufficiently comprehensive action had been taken.
A national information technology-based (IT) application system is used for applications to the foundation programme for junior doctors. It was used for recruitment in 2007 and is being used again this year.
Decisions about whether a national IT-based system should be used for recruitment to specialty training for junior doctors will be the subject of extensive discussion with the medical profession and other key stakeholders.