You'll have to have a first in order to be able to skip the masters, and since entry to funded programs is competitive, you have to be an exceptional candidate for this to actually happen – it's quite rare.

Then there's the program itself. DTCs (doctoral training centres) now mostly run 3 + 1 programmes, where your first year is a master's, involving taught classes and a research project. This is to get everyone up to speed on how to actually do independent research, and to build core skills. While it's true that teaching doesn't always form a mandatory part of a doctoral degree, working as a teaching assistant for at least one semester is often mandatory.

In short, you've mischaracterised doctoral education in England and Wales (Scotland may be different) to quite an extraordinary degree. I see no reason to comment upon the "more than our top share" claim, for reasons which are, I hope, obvious.

> You'll have to have a first in order to be able to skip the masters

Well I'm not sure that many people without a first would seriously consider doing a PhD, so this isn't relevant in most cases.

> DTCs (doctoral training centres) now mostly run 3 + 1 programmes

Right, which is a big disadvantage of them. DTCs are just one way to do a PhD and they're not the traditional approach in the UK.

> In short, you've mischaracterised doctoral education in England and Wales

I don't agree! This matches from I see of students going into and coming out of the system today.