Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of offering upskilling roles for non-trainee registrars in response to a shortage in training programmes to allow them to obtain Certificates of Equivalent Specialist Registration.

No formal assessment has been made. However, NHS England and Health Education England are considering a wide range of options to support doctors training through the development of the forthcoming long term workforce plan.

The Department is amending the legislation which governs entry to the specialist and general practitioner (GP) registers. We expect changes to the legislation to be made before the end of 2022. This will enable the General Medical Council to develop new routes to the specialist and GP registers in due course and increase accessibility.