HL Deb 16 December 1947 vol 153 cc293-4

Clause 8, page 6, line 29, at end insert: ("(2) Where a direction for registration under this Section 1s given, the Council may include therein a direction that the right to registration pursuant thereto shall be subject to payment by the person as to whom the direction is given of such fee as may be therein specified not being greater than the fee for the time being determined by the Council for the registration of persons as Commonwealth practitioners or as foreign practitioners, as the case may be, under Section eleven or twelve of the Medical Act, 1886.")

LORD HENDERSON

My Lords, this remaining Amendment provides for the payment of registration fees to the General Medical Council in respect of distinguished visitors and post-graduate students who are temporarily registered under Clause 8. Earlier in the Bill, in Clause 6, it is laid down that the payment of fees shall be obligatory where registrations are made under Clauses 2, 3 and 4, but there is not the same case for an invariable rule where temporary registrations under Clause 8 are concerned. It would, for instance, dearly be invidious to expect distinguished visitors who are here primarily for our benefit and not their own, to pay a fee on temporary registration. Post-graduate students, however, are in a different position as they are here for their own advantage, and, further, the General Medical Council will be entailed in some work, in keeping record of their movements. It is therefore proposed to give the General Medical Council power to charge a fee not exceeding the normal fee, which is at present £5, for registrations under Clause 8, but to leave them free to reduce or waive it if they think fit. I beg to move that this Amendment be agreed to.

Moved, That this House do agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.—(Lord Henderson.)

On Question, Motion agreed to.