Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer on 14 February to Question 219561 on Endoscopy: Recruitment, how many of the 202 clinical endoscopists have now completed their training and are able to undertake procedures in flexible sigmoidoscopy.

Trainees in Health Education England’s Clinical Endoscopy programme choose, depending on their trust’s requirements, to train in one endoscopy modality - either flexible sigmoidoscopy or upper gastrointestinal. Of the 202 clinical endoscopists, 66 candidates have already completed their training and are able to undertake flexible sigmoidoscopy with a further 46 currently in training. This will total 112 trained and able to perform flexible sigmoidoscopy. The remaining 90 are trained or training in a different modality and may receive further training by their trust in an additional modality, which may also include flexible sigmoidoscopy.