Explanatory note

These Regulations amend the European Specialist Medical Qualifications Order 1995 (“the 1995 Order"), which implemented European obligations contained principally in Council Directive 93/16/EEC relating to the training of specialist doctors and mutual recognition of their qualifications.

Article 6 of the 1995 Order is amended to clarify that a certificate of completion of specialist training (“CCST") may be awarded only to a person who has been appointed to, and successfully completed, a course of specialist training intended to lead to the award of a CCST.

Article 12 is amended to extend to 1st December 1998 the period within which existing specialists may apply to have their names included in the specialist register. The Specialist Training Authority of the medical Royal Colleges (“the STA") is required to undertake assessments of existing specialists, who apply to it for that purpose by 1st April 1998, no later than 1st November 1998. New provisions allow the STA to take account of experience and additional training as well as qualifications, when assessing whether a doctor has the requisite expertise, and the STA may recommend a period of further training of up to twelve months for this purpose. A doctor to whom such a recommendation is made may apply to have his name included in the specialist register by 1st December 1998 and will be entitled to inclusion in the register if he satisfies the STA as to knowledge and skill before 1st December 2001.

The Schedules to the 1995 Order are amended to allow the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to appoint a member of the STA and to reflect a change in the name by which certain medical specialties in which qualifications are awarded in the UK are known.