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Medical Profession (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2008

I thank noble Lords for their brief and thoughtful contributions. The aim of the reforms is to enhance confidence in the system of professional regulation. The noble Earl, Lord Howe, and the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, both asked whether we need a separate committee for medical education. As I said in my opening remarks, we want this to be core to the GMC’s other statutory functions. Removing the Education Committee as a separate statutory committee does not signal a diminution of the importance of education; instead, it highlights its crucial importance in all the regulatory functions carried out by the GMC. The GMC is proposing a three-board model to improve co-ordination of medical education and training—a graduate board, a postgraduate board and a continuing professional education board. While the Education Committee will no longer be a separate statutory committee, the council will have three boards to provide advice on all stages of medical education. That brings me to the other point that noble Lords raised concerning continuing expertise and the potential loss of expertise. It seems very likely that many of those who have served on, and been involved with, the Education Committee will move on to the new committees and therefore their expertise will not be lost. I turn to the subject of specialist consultants. Again, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, for informing the Committee and answering questions for me. I am always very grateful for her interventions. The vast majority of the 200 consultants are long-established and, for one reason or another, have not registered. However, we hope that the carrot of free registration will encourage those who have not done so to register. In future, those who do not do so may find recertification difficult if they do not co-operate. We hope that this carrot means that a stick will not have to be used at this point. Finally, I turn to the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, in relation to standards and orphan specialties. We intend that standards will be developed for each area of specialist recertification by the appropriate medical royal college or specialist association. We expect the academy and individual colleges to work closely together to develop these standards. Therefore, although there are differences in practice, we have to ensure that there are consistent standards but with the flexibility that the noble Baroness mentioned. If I have missed any points, I shall pick them up and write to noble Lords. On Question, Motion agreed to.