Health Care and Associated Professions (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2008

My Lords, like the noble Earl, Lord Howe, I do not wish to repeat debates that have been held in this House extensively over the past two years in the light of Dame Janet Smith’s major report. It is worth noting that these orders reflect a high degree of consensus among the professions about how they need and wish to change to ensure that the standards of practitioners within their different professions are not only maintained but extended. I agree with most of what the noble Earl, Lord Howe, has said. I do not wish to repeat it. I simply wanted to ask three questions. First, under the GMC’s powers to approve doctors, who will be able to practise in times of emergency? Will there be a fitness-to-practise process through which they will have to pass to be on a list in advance of an emergency? Secondly, will those powers deal with qualified doctors who are asylum seekers in this country—an issue that has been raised in your Lordships’ House on different occasions—and with whether they would be allowed to practise in a time of emergency? I very much welcome the requirement of the councils to reflect diversity in their make-up. Finally, I echo a point made by the noble Earl, Lord Howe. We are going through a major change in the regulation of professionals. Welcome though that is, the momentum behind it was a terrible scandal, in which hundreds of people died. The process of review is important. We never again want to be in a position where a scandal of that magnitude is required to make revisions that are deemed necessary. It is also the case that, whenever there is major change, there will be unintended consequences. The enthusiasm of the professions may wane when these orders are enacted. Can the Minister be a bit more definite than she was on the last order about the timescale of a review? It would be advisable to have a review within three years of these arrangements.