§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 13 February 2002,Official Report, column 486W, on international nurse recruitment; (1) how he plans to inform (a) NHS trusts, (b) overseas Governments, (c) overseas nurses and (d) nursing organisations of those nursing recruitment agencies which have failed to adhere to the code of practice; [39224]
(2) how many people have been assigned to assess international nurse recruitment agencies' compliance of the code of practice; how long each assessment takes; and what additional funding has been allocated to the code of practice to ensure that standards are enforced; [39302]
(3) how many international nurse recruitment agencies (a) are to be assessed by the code of practice, (b) had been assessed by 1 March 2002, (c) had signed up to comply to the code of practice and (d) had failed to adhere to the code of practice; and by when he expects code of practice reviews to be completed. [39303]
925W
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answers 28 February and 4 March 2002]: We are working with international recruitment agencies and their representative bodies and other stakeholders to establish arrangements whereby agencies can register their agreement to comply with the Code of Practice on international recruitment.
Those commercial agencies who agree to adhere to the Code of Practice will be listed on the Department's 926W website. In addition, overseas Governments will receive information via the Embassies and High Commissions and through the Commonwealth Secretariat.
This work will be undertaken by departmental officials in conjunction with international recruitment leads working with NHS trusts. No date for completing this work has been set.