§ 1. Mr. Hurdasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what progress has been made towards agreement within the EEC on harmonising professional qualifications.
§ The Secretary of State for Education and Science (Mr. Reg Prentice)At a meeting on 6th June last Ministers of Education of the European Communities adopted a resolution on mutual recognition of professional qualifications under Article 57 of the Treaty of Rome. This provides that directives under Article 57 should resort as little as possible to the prescription of detailed training criteria and that advisory committees may be set up for different professions. Detailed discussions on draft directives affecting individual professions are the responsibility of the Government Departments most closely concerned with the professions in question in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. HurdWill the Secretary of State accept congratulations on the progress made at the meeting he attended in June? Has not an education committee been set up as a result of the meeting, which is to report by June 1975, and is not there now a prospect, after all the discussions— which were necessarily very long—of agreement not on the lowering of standards but on the lowering of barriers, so that, for example, teachers will be able to travel within the Community and take jobs in various Community countries without the difficulties which they have hitherto encountered?
§ Mr. PrenticeThe education aspects of that meeting are the subject of a later Question on the Order Paper. On the mutual recognition of qualifications, which is the subject of the original Question, progress is being made through committees representing members of the professions in the member countries. I am advised that that will not apply to teachers, because at present it applies only to self-employed people, and teachers are an employed category and, in some 1329 member countries, are akin to civil servants. Their status is not affected by Article 57 of the Treaty.
§ Mr. CanavanDoes not my right hon. Friend think that he should put his own house in order before branching out into Europe? Is he aware of certain disharmonies between professional and educational qualifications in different areas of the United Kingdom? What steps is my right hon. Friend taking to ensure that all United Kingdom universities define entrance qualifications in terms of the Scottish Certificate of Education, thus helping to ensure quality of opportunity of entrance for all students, irrespective of the part of the United Kingdom from which they come?
§ Mr. PrenticeMy hon. Friend's supplementary question goes a little wide of the original Question. Perhaps he will write to me about any problem he has in mind. I have no proposals to interfere with the traditional independence of universities in their admission policies.