Thank you for your kind words, convener. I have certainly felt it to be a great privilege to hold the role and to appear before parliamentary committees, which I regard as an essential component of public service and being held to account.
I am pleased to be here today with colleagues to discuss the legislative consent memorandum for the United Kingdom Healthcare (International Arrangements) Bill, which was lodged in the Scottish Parliament and published on Thursday 6 December.
On leaving the European Union, the reciprocal healthcare arrangements that are in place might no longer apply in their current form, and UK legislation is required to provide for future arrangements. In broad terms, the bill would give powers to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to fund and arrange healthcare outside the UK and to put in place reciprocal healthcare arrangements between the UK and other countries or international organisations such as the EU.
The Scottish ministers and the UK Government agree that the bill impacts on the devolved function of health. As a result, it requires the consent of the Scottish Parliament. UK Government officials have indicated that the bill will be amended to recognise the responsibility of the devolved Administrations. The proposal is to introduce a requirement to consult the devolved Administrations and to agree a memorandum of understanding with them before regulations can be introduced that impact on devolved matters.
In the event of a deal being reached between the EU and the UK, the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 would allow the current reciprocal health arrangements to continue during the implementation period. However, in the event of there being no deal, the Healthcare (International Arrangements) Bill would be needed to put new arrangements in place quickly.
The committee is, no doubt, aware that, in June, the UK Government passed the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, despite the refusal of the Scottish Parliament to give its legislative consent to relevant provisions of that bill. UK Government ministers expressed the view that Brexit is “not normal”, so it falls within the exceptions that apply to the Sewel convention.
Since the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill was passed, the Scottish Government has taken the view that it should not seek formal legislative consent from the Parliament for Brexit bills. The Scottish Government has, however, made it clear that it will co-operate in developing bills and supporting this Parliament’s scrutiny of them. It has lodged LCMs on the Trade Bill, the Agriculture Bill, the Fisheries Bill and now the Healthcare (International Arrangements) Bill. The Scottish ministers have also said that formal legislative consent could be sought for Brexit legislation in exceptional circumstances.
The Scottish Government believes that there are exceptional circumstances for the Healthcare (International Arrangements) Bill, given the need to provide reassurance to Scots who access state healthcare in the European Economic Area under the existing reciprocal schemes. The Government will, therefore, lodge an LCM for the bill.
On reciprocal healthcare more generally, my letter of 4 December to the committee indicated that six NHS boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, were not participating in the UK Government’s European health insurance card incentive scheme. We have since received further returns, and we now have the November statistics. I am pleased to report that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has recorded EHIC activity and has recovered £120,000. I will meet the health board chief executives this evening, and I propose to ask the remaining five boards why they are not participating in the scheme.
We have anticipated the range of questions that the committee might ask in the officials whom we have brought to the meeting, but the subject is broad and could attract questions from members on many aspects. If there is any information that I do not have, I give the committee an undertaking to provide it at the earliest possible moment after the evidence session has concluded.