Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

Debate between Baroness Andrews and Earl of Courtown

Report stage
Monday 15th May 2023 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

I apologise for interrupting the noble Baroness, but I remind the whole House that, as we are on Report, there cannot be any interruptions apart from material descriptions of various features.

[Baroness Andrews (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Lord. It is a measure of the speed with which the Bill has gone through every stage that these questions should be raised in the first place, but I leave it to the Government to reply.

I also wish to pick up the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, about whose fault it is that this process has been so slow. I was appalled by the comments of a previous leader of the House of Commons; I thought he traduced civil servants who cannot answer for themselves. In our committee, we have seen these officials working day and night, against the clock, to make some sense of a process which has simply not been sensible. To suggest that they have somehow been subversive, deliberately slow or incompetent is a real slur on the professionalism of officials and of the Civil Service. I hope that every Member of this House agrees with that.

My question to the Minister is this. I am grateful for what has been achieved, but I look at that list of 600 and am reminded of the 600 people going into the valley of death, bravely being sacrificed. There are some in this list that refer to common frameworks—for example, safety of food and emissions. There is no apparent reason why they are in there and I do not know how many there are. On behalf of our committee, I would like a list which tells us—

Care Sector: Apprenticeships

Debate between Baroness Andrews and Earl of Courtown

Monday 6th July 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Andrews (Lab)]

Is the Minister aware that the RCN has estimated that more than 3,000 overseas nurses currently earn less than £35,000 and are therefore liable to be deported in 2017 as a result of the Immigration Rules? Can he tell me how many of those nurses are in the care sector? Can he also tell me why nurses are not on the shortage occupation list, which would exempt them from those regulations? Will he make it his business to see whether the Home Secretary can change that?

[The Earl of Courtown]

My Lords, the noble Baroness mentioned the shortage occupation list. In February, following a commission from my right honourable friend the Home Secretary to conduct a limited review into a number of occupations on the shortage occupation list, which included roles in the health sector, the Migration Advisory Council advised against putting nurses on the shortage occupation list, after taking evidence from a range of stakeholders. Controlling migration is part of our plan to build a system that is fairer to British citizens. Employers must first try to recruit from the settled workforce.