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Doctors: Training

Asked by John GradyLabourDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled Answered 18 March 2026UIN 119626

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many doctors have qualified as consultants under the Portfolio Pathway route over the last five years for which data is available.

Answered by Karin Smyth

No assessment has been made by the Department of the effectiveness of the Portfolio Pathway route to professional registration for overseas qualified specialist medical practitioners and general practitioners or the availability of portfolio assessors. The Department does not hold application or qualification data about this route.

The General Medical Council (GMC) is the independent regulator of medical practitioners, or doctors, in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for setting standards that must be met by both domestic and international applicants wishing to be added to their registers to ensure registrants are safe to practise.

As the independent regulator, it is for the GMC to monitor the operational effectiveness of its routes to registration, and to determine the qualifications and experience that it will accept. The GMC publishes data on applications to its Portfolio Pathway at the following link:

https://www.gmc-uk.org/about/what-we-do-and-why/data-and-research/statistics-and-reports/doctors-specialist-applications-and-certificates

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