To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether he has taken steps to agree a code of practice for the international recruitment of health care professionals within the EU to stop member states recruiting medical staff from developing countries; and if he will make a statement. (122764)

The European Commission has recommended an EU-wide code of conduct on health worker recruitment as one of a series of measures to address the health staffing crisis in many developing countries. Department of Health officials are taking this forward with other member states. The group is at the stage of negotiating principles, such as the right of individuals to move and will then draft text for a code.

There are varying views on the impact of the UK code on international recruitment. DFID and the Department of Health are to carry out an evaluation of the effectiveness of the code to strengthen the evidence base. This will be complete by June 2007.