§ Baroness Finlay of Llandaffasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will enable new United Kingdom graduates who have been unable to register with the Health Professions Council while the register has been closed from 27 June to 9 July to have immediate registration to allow them to take up employment as registered professionals after 9 July. [HL3737]
§ Lord WarnerIn the interests of public protection it is necessary for all applications for registration to be properly processed. All applications for Health Professions Council (HPC) registration are assessed on an individual basis and judged on their merits.
The HPC will open its new register on 9 July 2003 following the closure of the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine system to UK applicants on 27 June 2003. However, new application forms for the HPC register have been available and directly downloadable from the HPC's website since 2 July 2003. This minimal period of closure of 12 days (7 working days) is to allow time for the essential administrative task of effecting the transfer from the old register, which has been operating for the past 33 years, to the new HPC register.
The HPC has endeavoured to minimise disruption to the services and will continue to process all applications in a timely and efficient manner so that there will be no unreasonable delay. Where possible the HPC informed all potential stakeholders of the situation in advance of the closure of the old system.