Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring (a) Anaesthesia Associates and (b) Physician Associates to be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council.

The assessment of the appropriate regulatory body for Anaesthesia Associates (AAs) and Physician Associates (PAs) regulation was completed in 2019. On 7 February 2019, the Government published its response to the consultation, Regulation of Medical Associate Professions in the UK. This response confirmed its decision to introduce statutory regulation for AAs and PAs, and set out that the majority of consultation respondents were in favour of the General Medical Council (GMC) taking on regulation of these roles. Following further work by the Department, on 18 July 2019, the Government announced that it would be asking the GMC to regulate both roles.

No further assessments have been made of the potential merits of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) regulating AAs and PAs, and there have been no recent discussions with the HCPC on this matter. The Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order has now been approved by Parliament following debates in the House of Commons and House of Lords. The legislation enables the GMC to commence regulation for the two roles at the end of 2024.