Amendment of Dentists Act
6.—(1) The Dentists Act is amended in accordance with this regulation.
(2) In section 15 (qualification for registration in the dentists register)—
(a)in subsection (4A), for “EEC” substitute “EEA”;
(b)in subsection (7), in the definition of—
(i)“the EEA Agreement”, after “1993”, add “and as amended, so far as relevant to this Act, by Decision of the EEA Joint Committee No. 84/2002 of 25th June 2002”,
(ii)“EEA State”, after “Agreement”, add “or Switzerland”.
(3) In section 16 (supplementary provisions as to registration of holders of overseas diplomas), in subsection (2A) for paragraphs (a) and (b) substitute—
“(a)shall take into account all his dental qualifications, knowledge or experience, wherever acquired, which are relevant to that decision;
(b)if the person holds a dental qualification granted outside the EEA which has been accepted by another EEA State as qualifying him to practise as a dentist in that State, shall take that acceptance into account; and”.
(4) In section 17 (temporary registration), in subsection (3A)—
(a)for “any professional dental experience or knowledge that he has acquired in another EEA State”, substitute “all his dental qualifications, knowledge or experience, wherever acquired, which are relevant to that decision”; and
(b)for “such a State”, substitute “another EEA State”.
(5) In section 21A (notification of result of application for registration by an EEA national), in subsection (1), after “for registration under section 15(1)(b)”, insert “or (c)”.
(6) In Schedule 2 (European dental qualifications), Part I (appropriate European diplomas) is amended as follows—
(a)in paragraph 1(1), in the definition of—
(i)“Community Council Directive No 78/686/EEC”, for “and the Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden Act”, substitute “, the Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden Act, Directive 2001/19/EC and the Swiss Agreement”,
(ii)“the Dental Training Directive”, after “Act”, add “and Directive 2001/19/EC”,
(iii)“the implementation date”, omit “and” the end of paragraph (d) and after paragraph (d) insert—
“(da)in the case of Switzerland, 1st June 2002; and”;
(b)in paragraph 1(2), after the definition of “the Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden Act”, add the following definition—
““the Swiss Agreement” means the Agreement between the European Community and its Member States, of the one part, and the Swiss Confederation, of the other, on the free movement of persons, signed at Luxembourg on 21st June 1999.”;
(c)after paragraph 6, insert—
“6A.—(1) A diploma in medicine awarded in Italy to a person who began medical training at a university on or after 28th January 1980 but not later than 31st December 1984 is an appropriate European diploma for the purposes of section 15(1)(b) of this Act where, subject to sub-paragraph (2) below, that person produces to the registrar a certificate issued by the competent authority in Italy certifying that—
(a)he has passed the specialist aptitude test set by that competent authority which demonstrates that he possesses a level of knowledge and skills comparable to those of a person holding the qualification listed for Italy in Part II of this Schedule;
(b)he has effectively, lawfully and principally practised dentistry in Italy for at least three consecutive years during the five years preceding the date of issue of the certificate; and
(c)he is authorised to practise dentistry under the same conditions as a holder of the qualification listed for Italy in Part II of this Schedule.
(2) A person shall be excepted from satisfying the requirement referred to in sub-paragraph (1)(a) above if he satisfies the registrar that he has successfully completed three years of study which are certified by the competent authority of Italy as being equivalent to the training referred to in Article 1 of the Dental Training Directive.”.
(7) For Part II of Schedule 2 (scheduled European diplomas), substitute the Part II of that Schedule set out in Part I of Schedule 2 to these Regulations.