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 estimate of the number of overseas-trained clinical technologists the NHS needs to recruit to fill the workforce gap.

We have no plans to extend statutory regulation to clinical technologists at this time. No assessment has been made of the potential merits of the statutory regulation of clinical technologists nor any assessment of trends in the recruitment, number and development of non-statutory regulated clinical technologists. We do not hold data on how many overseas-trained clinical technologists the National Health Service needs to recruit.

The statutory regulation of healthcare professionals should only be used where the risks to public and patient protection cannot be addressed in other ways, such as through employer oversight or accredited voluntary registration. Anyone undertaking or seeking employment in a health and social care occupation, whether regulated or unregulated, will also be subject to employer checks. The Department does not have any current plans to bring clinical technologists into statutory regulation.

Clinical Technologists can register with the Register of Clinical Technologists which is a voluntary register accredited by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA). The PSA sets standards for organisations holding voluntary registers for health and social care occupations and accredits those registers that meet the standards. Accreditation provides assurance that a voluntary register is well run; for example, ensuring that registrants are required to meet high standards of personal behaviour, technical competence and, where relevant, business practice.

The Department does not collect data on the number of clinical technologists employed by the NHS.