To ask the Secretary of State for Health if laboratory technicians working for national health service hospitals are designated as medical laboratory scientific officers; and if such persons are required to have MLSO training before they can apply for employment in the NHS as laboratory technicians.

Medical laboratory scientific officer (MLSO) is a term used to describe staff who perform a certain range of technical, analytical and investigative functions in national health service clinical laboratories. Pay and grading agreements of the NHS professional and technical staffs B Whitley council require staff discharging that range of MLSO functions to meet the qualification