Hansard Monday 10th February 2003

Dr. Evan Harris (Oxford, West and Abingdon): What his policy is on the need for refugee doctors in receipt of jobseeker's allowance or income support and undergoing training courses provided by the national health service to be available for work. [96320]

The Minister for Work (Mr. Nicholas Brown): The purpose of the jobseeker's allowance is to support clients who are available for and actively seeking work. Any change in those requirements would seriously dilute the work focus of the JSA. However, the Department of Health has established a steering group on refugee health professionals. The steering group has allocated £1 million for training and support to help refugee health professionals.

Dr. Harris: Does the Minister believe that that money is all that is required to solve the problem? At the moment, up to 2,000 refugee doctors are faced with the choice of giving up either the opportunity to use their skills in this country's health service, where they are desperately needed, or the livelihood that they require to support themselves and their families as they seek retraining in the NHS to give of their skills to this country. Should that be the only choice that they face?

Mr. Brown: I accept that the hon. Gentleman is on to a good point. That is why discussions between the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health continue. We are seeking a way forward, but I cannot offer the prospect of an easy way forward at the expense of the benefits system.

Glenda Jackson (Hampstead and Highgate): While welcoming what the Government have done with regard to the steering group, there are not only difficulties for doctors who would wish to be part of delivering health services in this country but, certainly in my constituency, single women who wish to return to nursing are experiencing the same difficulties, which are exacerbated by the difficulties of obtaining child care. Will the steering group also examine that?

Mr. Brown: The child care issues are under discussion in a number of Departments, and we have made progress in that area. On the point about the route for health care professionals–whether nurses or those with other specialisms–discussions continue between the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health. We are trying to find a way forward but, as I said to the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon (Dr. Harris), that cannot be at the expense of the benefits system.

Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham): Mindful of the enormous gaps in recruiting doctors in this country, largely because the policy of the Secretary of State for Health has driven so many home-grown doctors to frustration and to leave the profession, we need to use those refugees who are here. But will the Minister also be mindful that many countries–Ethiopia, for example–have more doctors based overseas in America than in Ethiopia itself? Will he make sure that when doctors are able to return to countries where they are desperately needed, they are assisted in doing so?

Mr. Brown: The whole focus of the Department for Work and Pension's working-age services is to help people into work in the United Kingdom. I respectfully suggest that the other issues that the hon. Gentleman raises are more appropriate for the Secretary of State for Health.

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