Professional Qualifications Bill [HL]

Lord Kennedy of Southwark Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 9th November 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, from the outset of the consideration of the Bill, the Opposition have been clear that this legislation must not undermine regulators’ independence and that the Government cannot force them to accept professional qualifications. The public rightly expect that high standards of health, public safety and consumer protection will be maintained through the process of recognising overseas qualifications. This was repeated to us time and again in the meetings that my noble friends had with regulators and organisations across different sectors and professions.

My noble friend Lady Hayter of Kentish Town spoke in Committee about

“the Bill’s potential to undermine the independent standard-setting and public interest duties of what we have seen as autonomous regulators.”—[Official Report, 22/6/21; col. 201.]

A Bill compelling regulators either to enter negotiations with an overseas regulator or to put in place a process for recognising the qualification of applicants trained abroad, in order to fulfil a promise made by the Government in a trade deal or to fix a skills shortage as defined by the Minister, would not be compatible with the regulators’ independence. That concern was shared widely across the House during debates.

From looking through Hansard, I think it was the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, who said that regulator autonomy needs to be in the Bill to recognise its importance. It was clear to many noble Lords that this could impact on our current domestic standards, with regulators perhaps being forced to accept lower levels of training requirements or changes to fit in with practice in the UK.