Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to work with the General Medical Council and the Royal College of Pathologists to revise the pathology training pathway in order to rectify the national shortage of paediatric pathologists.

The Government is fully committed to attracting, training, and recruiting the National Health Service workforce of the future, including paediatric pathologists.

NHS England established a national programme in late 2022 to address paediatric and perinatal pathologist workforce challenges and has undertaken significant work in relation to workforce funding, training, and incentives. This has included making additional funding available to support training posts in areas where there have been interested candidates but no training post available.

NHS England has also appointed a new National Training Programme Director, who has been working with the Lead Postgraduate Dean to influence positive changes to the examination structures in collaboration with the Royal College of Pathologists and the General Medical Council.