Member

Amendment 12A was tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Darzi, who is not able to be in his place, and I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Patel, for explaining why that is the case; we wish him well in his work today. The amendment was also referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones. The Government are unable to support Amendment 12A for the following reasons. Under the amendment, graduates of overseas campuses of Irish medical schools would be prioritised on the basis of course equivalence alone. Those graduates would be prioritised for UK foundation programme posts equally with UK medical graduates, whereas in Ireland they are not prioritised for the internship year—the equivalent of the foundation programme.