Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors Act 1997

8 Admission to register

(1) A person seeking admission to a part of the register must make application to the Central Council in accordance with the Council’s rules.

(2) Subject to subsection (6) below, the applicant shall be registered in that part (on payment of such fee as may be required by the rules) if he satisfies the Council that he is of good character and has the appropriate professional qualifications.

(3) He is to be regarded as having those qualifications if—

(a) he has in the United Kingdom undergone the training, and passed the examinations, required by the Council’s rules for admission to that part of the register; or

(b) being a national of any EEA State, he has professional qualifications, obtained in an EEA State other than the United Kingdom, which the Secretary of State has by order designated as having Community equivalence for the purposes of registration in that part; or

(c) he has, elsewhere than in the United Kingdom, undergone training in nursing, midwifery or health visiting (as the case may be) and either—

(i) that training is recognised by the Central Council as being to a standard sufficient for registration in that part; or

(ii) it is not so recognised, but the applicant has undergone in the United Kingdom or elsewhere such additional training as the Council may require.

(4) An order under subsection (3)(b) may provide that a professional qualification designated by the order is to be regarded as having Community equivalence for the purposes of registration in a part of the register only if prescribed conditions required by a directive issued by the Council of the European Communities are fulfilled; and different conditions may be prescribed with respect to the same qualification for different circumstances.

(5) Any person who—

(a) is not a national of an EEA State, but

(b) is, by virtue of a right conferred by Article 11 of [O.J. No. L257.] Council Regulation (EEC) No. 1612/68 or any other enforceable Community right, entitled to be treated, for the purposes of access to the nursing profession, or the profession of midwifery, no less favourably than a national of such a State,

shall be treated for the purposes of subsection (3)(b) as if he were such a national.

(6) In the case of an applicant within subsection (3)(c), the rules may either—

(a) make it an additional condition of his being registered that he has the necessary knowledge of English; or

(b) require him to have that knowledge within a period specified by the rules (failing which his registration will lapse at the end of the period).

(7) ln any case where—

(a) an application for admission to a part of the register is made by an applicant within subsection (3)(b), and

(b) the Central Council has received all the documentary evidence as to his character and qualifications required to enable him to be registered,

he shall be registered in that part within three months of the date on which the Council was in receipt of that evidence or such longer period as may be permitted in his case by Article 10 of the Nursing Directive or Article 11 of the Midwifery Directive.

(8) In this Act—

• “EEA State” means a Contracting Party to the EEA Agreement;

• “EEA Agreement” means the [O.J. No. L1.] Agreement on the European Economic Area signed at Oporto on 2nd May 1992 as adjusted by the Protocol signed at Brussels on 17th March 1993;

• “national”, in relation to an EEA State, means the same as it does for the purposes of the Community Treaties.