Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase the level of digital pathology in the NHS.

NHSX and NHS Digital have an existing workstream for digital pathology. This work was delayed in order to divert resources to support the COVID-19 pandemic, including working with pathology systems in the collection of virus and antibody test results. As we move back to focus on core activities, digital pathology work will resume. NHSX will be working with the pathology community to develop a digital pathology strategy which will cover updates to coding and messaging standards as well as the ability to view results across the National Health Service.