§ 2.41 p.m.
§ Lord AVEBURYMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action the Secretary of State will take regarding the allegation by the chairman of the Catholic Racial Justice Group in Leicester, that 185 Asian women attending the Leicester General Hospital's ante-natal clinics have been asked to produce their passports, and that one woman who refused to do so having previously had a confinement at the hospital, was refused ante-natal care.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, the Government do not accept that it is right for the production of passports to be made a routine requirement for one particular group in the community. The Leicester Area Health Authority will be asked to consider the use at the hospital concerned of methods of checking eligibility to receive National Health Service 1510 treatment as used elsewhere in the National Health Service.
§ Lord AVEBURYMy Lords, I am extremely grateful to the noble Lord for that favourable Answer. Is he aware that, so far as I have been able to ascertain from inquiries I have made of the Community Relations Commission, this is the only hospital in the country which follows the practice of requiring passports to be produced by women of Asian ethnic origin? Is the noble Lord also aware that a doctor who inquired of the hospital authority why this was done was told that it was on the instructions of the Home Office? Would the noble Lord care to check that? Would he also tell the House whether this procedure is considered to be illegal under both the racial discrimination legislation and the Sex Discrimination Act, since apparently only women are required to produce their passports?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, in reply to the comment of the noble Lord, I should say that we are glad that it is the only hospital that does something of this kind and we hope that from today—or, at least, very soon—the hospital concerned will not be doing this again. I cannot tell whether or not the idea came from the Home Office. My personal view—and I ought not to have such a view on this matter—is that it is most unlikely, because I have made some inquiries to find out, if possible, how, why and where it originated. My information is that some hospitals—and Leicester is one in particular—often have difficulty in establishing whether people are resident or non-resident, and sometimes there is difficulty of communication. They have chosen this method, but we deplore it, as I have already said.
§ Lord HAILSHAM of SAINT MARYLEBONEMy Lords, since the matter seems to me to be one of considerable obscurity, can the noble Lord tell us in what circumstances it is legitimate for anybody to demand anyone else to show his passport inside the bounds of the United Kingdom, other than at a port?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I would not know whether it was proper or improper in the sense in which the 1511 noble and learned Lord is speaking. All I can say is that rightly or wrongly—and the Government feel, wrongly—this was some type of effort to try to establish whether people were correctly using the National Health Service, and whether they were entitled to use it. I do not think that I can take the matter beyond that point.
§ Lord AVEBURYMy Lords, I appreciate that the noble Lord has not had very much time to make the inquiries, but would he consider that this case warrants a fuller investigation to ascertain how the practice first came into use, since the district administrator says that it has been followed for the past 10 or 15 years? Will he also consider the issuing of circulars to other hospitals to prevent this happening elsewhere?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I shall certainly do what the noble Lord says. However, I think that the noble Lord has achieved his purpose of drawing attention to this matter. I understand that it has been going on for some time. But I hope that, as a result of this question being raised, and following the communications which will go from the Department concerned to the Area Health Authority, the practice will stop and the matter will be drawn to the attention of other hospitals, although I understand that there is no need to do so.