Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the answer of 21 November 2025 to question 90178, what steps his Department is taking to develop standard operating procedures for the handling and freezing of fresh tissue samples.

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the fresh-freezing of tissue examples have already been developed across pathology networks in England. It is, however, the responsibility of individual pathology services to maintain their own SOPs for the fresh-freezing of tissue samples. These protocols outline local capabilities and practices.

There are no current plans to introduce one standardised approach for the fresh-freezing of tissue samples. NHS England is committed to addressing variation in the provision of pathology services, particularly histopathology, of which the investigation of brain and neural tissues is a core element.

The Department is exploring options to expand brain tissue freezing capacity.