Health and Sport Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Official Report 647KB pdf

European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018

Cross-border Health Care (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment etc) Regulations 2019 [Draft]

Good morning and welcome to the 10th meeting of the Health and Sport Committee in 2019. I ask everyone in the room to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent.

Agenda items 1, 2 and 3 are consideration of an instrument related to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018: the draft Cross-border Health Care (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment etc) Regulations 2019. The purpose of the instrument is to amend the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 and the National Health Service (Cross-Border Health Care) (Scotland) Regulations 2013. The changes remedy deficiencies in retained European Union law relating to cross-border healthcare in circumstances in which the United Kingdom leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement in place.

The instrument provides a mechanism for ensuring that there is no interruption to healthcare arrangements for people accessing healthcare under EU Directive 2011/24 after exit day in those European Economic Area member states that agree to maintain the current arrangements in place with the UK for a transitional period until 31 December 2020.

We will consider first the categorisation of the instrument. Members will be familiar with the basis on which that is done. The Scottish Government has laid the instrument under the mandatory affirmative procedure. Legal advice suggests that the sift should have been applied, but that, had that been the case, the instrument would still have been laid under affirmative procedure. Ultimately, the practical effect is the same.

The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the instrument on 19 March 2019 and agreed that it had been appropriately categorised as being of medium significance. The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee drew the instrument to the attention of the Parliament under the general reporting ground, as it contains a minor error, and called on the Scottish Government to correct that error at the next legislative opportunity.

As I said, the instrument has been categorised as medium, because of its impact. Are members content with that categorisation?

Members indicated agreement.