Draft Recognition of Professional Qualifications (Amendment Etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018

Philippa Whitford Excerpts

Monday 4th February 2019 General Committees

[Dr Philippa Whitford (Central Ayrshire) (SNP)]

I declare an interest: I am a breast cancer surgeon and my husband is a GP. Although this statutory instrument is not focused on health and health-related professions, a lot of the issues are similar. The benefits that we are talking about all evolved to allow freedom of movement. The problem is that trying to hang on to some of them as we—sadly—celebrate the loss of freedom of movement is quite difficult.

The hon. Gentleman opposite—I apologise; I do not know his constituency, and I have lost my glasses so I cannot even look it up—talked about reciprocity. That is what we have had; people have been able to move to the EU, whether they are in the medical profession or one of the other professions, and EU citizens have similarly been able to come here.

In fact, we have a great need for people to come here. We have workforce shortages in many professions, including medicine, engineering and other STEM areas. We therefore do not want barriers. The burden may fall on individuals, because regulators will find it harder to recognise qualifications, to prove fitness to practise and to prove that someone has no sanction outstanding. The danger is that people who are mobile in their profession will simply choose to go somewhere else, because the workforce shortages are Europe-wide.

I welcome the fact that those who are already here will not face any loss of their qualification, that for those who have already applied, the process will go on to complete, and that those who come here on a transitory or occasional basis have a year in which they can still continue, but what will we do afterwards? In many professions and industries, people come for quite short periods of time to work in the UK, and vice versa. The danger is that we will make it difficult for people at the top end of the medical profession, the oil industry and the construction industry.

My biggest concern is about the loss of the IMI, which will make the processing more difficult, and of the alert mechanism. From a medical point of view, the alert mechanism has been critical, but there are other professions in which it is important to know that someone has sanctions against them before they are recognised. We are losing those benefits of being in Europe. I echo the comments of the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central: we are having to rush this because of the threat of leaving the EU without any kind of deal. I abhor that. That is not how it should be done, and the Government should take it off the table.

In Scotland, we need people in general, and we certainly need people from the professions. Anything that makes it harder for our industries or public services to recruit and retain people will make life more difficult.

--- Later in debate ---

[Richard Harrington]

I envisage that there could be those circumstances, depending on the individual EU member state, as I explained, but I have every reason to believe that there will not be. The only way that that could not happen is for there to be no crashing out and for there to be a proper arrangement, which I am sure everybody wants to be the case. The hon. Lady has made valid point; I would not say it was a ridiculous point.

[Dr Whitford]

Have British citizens been given the advice that they should apply to have their UK qualification recognised before the end of March to ensure that they do not run into trouble?

[Richard Harrington]

I am not sure of the answer to that, so I will drop the hon. Lady a note about it tomorrow, if that is acceptable. If she wishes to discuss it further, I would be happy to do so.

--- Later in debate ---

[Richard Harrington]

I apologise for my misunderstanding. I understand exactly what the hon. Lady is saying, and I will happily clarify that issue for her in the next day or so, if that is acceptable.

[Dr Whitford]

I totally understand that the whole point of freedom of movement is that we have no idea who is here and who is in Europe, but I suggest that when taking this issue forward, the Minister might consider publicity, whether through social media or alerting British consulates and embassies in the host countries. With so little time to go, it is really important that people are given warning.

[Richard Harrington]

That is a sensible suggestion. However, all of this information was in the technical notices that were distributed, I think, in October last year, although one might say that people do not read them. There was a lot of information in those notices, but I will look into how we can make sure that there is an easily acceptable and consumer-friendly way of getting that information. I accept that technical notices are somewhat technical, and might be quite dry.