Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

The Deputy Chairperson (Mrs Cameron): The next two items are UK statutory instruments (SIs) that the Minister has indicated his wish for Northern Ireland to be included in. The purpose of the statutory instrument is to amend the existing EU exit legislation for healthcare professionals to implement the recognition of professional qualification provisions in the UK/Swiss citizens' rights agreement and the EEA/EFTA separation agreement agreed by the UK in December 2018.

Members, I advise you that the departmental official, Patricia, is with us to brief the Committee on the regulations. You are very welcome again, Patricia. You can give us your briefing. Thank you.

Ms Patricia Quinn-Duffy (Department of Health): Thank you very much. I will give you a bit of background because I do not think that you have a lot of background on where this SI comes from and why we are here. The recognition of professional qualifications EU directive was put in place to support the free movement of professionals throughout the European Union by creating a process for recognising professional qualifications. It was introduced in 2005 and ensures that any professional who has obtained qualifications in one member state can have that qualification recognised, where necessary, to practise in that profession or to hold a professional title.

There are two routes that professionals can take. One is an automatic recognition, where a professional qualification has a minimum training standard that has been agreed by member states and is listed in the directive. For healthcare, that is doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives and pharmacists. Other professionals go through a general recognition, where the competent authority, which on the whole is the regulators in the UK, will look at each professional qualification case by case and assess the professional qualifications. This is in relation to other healthcare professions, such as paramedics and social workers.

In the UK, most regulators are UK-wide. The Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Social Care Council are the only two Northern Ireland-based healthcare professional regulators. The Department has been working very closely with the Department of Health and Social Care in England, which takes the lead for healthcare professionals. That Department works alongside the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for the Economy, which is the lead Department in Northern Ireland, as the regulations for recognition of professional qualifications apply to all professions, not just healthcare.

We are in this position because, following the end of the transition period on 31 December, the EU directive on the recognition of professional qualifications will no longer apply to the UK. The UK will have an opportunity to amend or replace its system of qualification recognition as it applies to EU member states. The future arrangements are part of the UK negotiation mandate, and the UK is looking to find an agreement to provide a pathway for the mutual recognition of professional qualifications with the EU. However, in preparation for a no-deal scenario in 2019, two pieces of legislation were laid in Westminster to close down the application of the directive and to provide mechanisms to make temporary arrangements for the recognition of qualifications. Those two sets of regulations were the European Qualifications (Health and Social Care Professions) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 and the European Qualifications (Pharmacists) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019.
In the case where no satisfactory bilateral arrangements relating to professional qualifications are agreed with the EU this year, on 1 January 2021 the UK Government intend to put in place a temporary system of recognition that allows holders of qualifications to seek recognition of their qualifications in the UK. This piece of legislation is, in particular, to implement the recognition of the professional qualification provision in relation to the UK's Swiss Citizens' Rights Agreement and the EEA/EFTA separation agreements, which were agreed with the UK in 2018. Those agreements are separate from the agreement reached between the EU and the UK in the EU withdrawal agreement, and this legislation legislates to embed the agreed rights of citizens of Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein to have their professional qualifications recognised in the UK. Switzerland has slightly different specific arrangements in its agreement that add longer-term continuous recognition of qualifications and for the temporary and occasional recognition of Swiss-trained professionals.

Regulation is a fully devolved matter to Northern Ireland. However, it has been established practice to legislate on a UK-wide basis, as the regulators are predominantly established in the UK. To legislate in the Assembly for a regulation of all healthcare professionals would involve considerable resource. While there is potential, therefore, to take an overall policy approach with GB, our assessment is that there is no persuasive evidence to suggest that this is warranted. In addition, the other devolved Administrations are content with the approach being led by the Department of Health and Social Care. This legislation is to implement international agreements, which are an excepted matter. Considering the extent of the full EU exit legislation programme, the Minister is minded to agree to include the Northern Ireland provisions in the UK-wide statutory instrument.

I have to note an update from the Department of Health and Social Care. The legislation was laid at the end of July, and it was to go through the draft affirmative process in Westminster. However, I have been informed in the past week that the legislation has been withdrawn and is due to be relaid — today, as it happens.

An issue had been raised about commencement, in that it was vague about when the legislation would commence. I await an update from the Department of Health and Social Care on the revised draft of the legislation and the explanatory memorandum on what exactly has been changed in the legislation.

I thank the Committee for letting me explain what the legislation is about. I will answer any questions that you may have.

The Deputy Chairperson (Mrs Cameron): That is great. Thank you, Patricia. The UK common frameworks analysis from April 2019 indicated that mutual recognition of professional qualifications (MRPQ) might be an area for a common framework. Is that still the case?

Ms Quinn-Duffy: No. My understanding is that, because there was not a day-one or legislative imperative, a common framework for MRPQ was not deemed necessary, so it has not been taken forward any further.

The Deputy Chairperson (Mrs Cameron): Does the NI protocol have any impact on that issue?

Ms Quinn-Duffy: No, not that I am aware of. There is nothing in the protocol on the recognition of professional qualifications.

The Deputy Chairperson (Mrs Cameron): OK. Thank you. The Chairperson, Colm Gildernew, is indicating. Colm, do you have a question for Patricia?

Mr Gildernew: Yes. Thank you. Patricia, I know you that touched upon this, but can you elaborate on the rationale for using a statutory instrument in this case, what the other options were and why this was felt to be the best one?

Ms Quinn-Duffy: On the options that we looked at, we had originally gone down the route of having a separate statutory rule (SR) for pharmacists, which we would normally do. The other professions are regulated on a UK-wide basis. In the past, the general process has been that they are regulated in a UK-wide SI on behalf of the four devolved nations.

On the reasoning behind taking forward an SI that included pharmacists, the SI had been due to be laid by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) before Christmas last year — it was a single piece of legislation — but it was not brought forward. During the first half of the year, it was decided to split the SI into general provisions and healthcare. The Department of Health and Social Care drafted the legislation for pharmacists. We had indicated that we would prefer, in discussions when the Assembly came back and in discussions internally with TEO, to look at taking forward an SR. However, when we participated in the legislative forum on the work programme for legislation up to the end of transition, we realised that to bring a single SR that looked after one profession and that used draft affirmative procedure would involve a significant amount of work and process for not only the Department but the Assembly. There was an option to include the profession in the SI, so it was a practical decision to advise the Minister to include pharmacists in the UK SI.

Mr Gildernew: OK. Thank you. In many ways, I agree with what Alex said earlier about the huge amount of uncertainty that is being created here as a result of Brexit. In the earlier session, Cathy outlined the amount of legislative work that now has to be undertaken in a short time. Given that we are trying to deal with a very dangerous pandemic at the same time speaks to the wisdom that there would have been in delaying all this. Uncertainty around health will create huge anxiety. Cathy's presentation raised a lot of issues to which there are no real, clear answers, and Cathy is coming back to the Committee. I just want to put that on the record.

Since this SI process started, the Internal Market Bill has been initiated in Westminster. Do you know what impact that Bill is likely to have on the outworkings for the implementation of this SI?

Ms Quinn-Duffy: The Internal Market Bill, as far as I am aware, should not have any impact on this SI, as it is an international agreement with the Swiss and the EFTA nations. There is no movement of goods within that. The recognition of professional qualifications in the UK should continue. However, as Cathy indicated, we are asking for legal advice on the work areas that we are looking at, including the impact on professional qualification recognition. We are awaiting that advice to ensure that there are not any impacts that we are not aware of currently.

Mr Gildernew: Finally on that, while there is significant work involved in this whichever route people go down, the complexity of the cross-border issues that we are dealing with here indicate that a more preferable route would have been to put it through the statutory regulations and the Assembly process to allow proper scrutiny, because some of these decisions — indeed, many of these decisions — could have long-term, serious and wide-ranging impacts. Do you have a comment on that? Considering your responsibility in the Department, what is your view on that?

Ms Quinn-Duffy: This SI is to legislate for international agreements between the UK, the Swiss and the EFTA nations. There will be cross-border implications around the future agreement with the EU. That regulation will potentially be later on in the transition period, whether or not the UK comes to an agreement. With this one in particular, it is looking at a separate international agreement.

Mr Gildernew: OK. Thank you. There is a theme here where Westminster, at times, clearly has not understood the complexity and, therefore, is poorly placed to devise legislation that would protect the interests of all our people.

The Deputy Chairperson (Mrs Cameron): Just before we let you go, Patricia, I have a question. How many staff in NI depend on the legislation going through?

Ms Quinn-Duffy: Anyone who is already working and has their qualification recognised falls under the citizens' rights provision. This is a future relationship. It is for future employees who have qualifications from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland. There is nobody currently whom this would impact on. They fall under the withdrawal agreement's citizens' rights.

The Deputy Chairperson (Mrs Cameron): OK. There are no further questions. Patricia, thank you very much for your time here today.

Ms Quinn-Duffy: Thank you.