In Brief
Government plans to push through new rules which would have discriminated against thousands of overseas doctors from outside the EU have been thwarted by the House of Lords. In R (BAPIO Action Ltd and Another) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and Another the law lords ruled that guidance to NHS employers, which had the effect of preventing overseas trainee doctors from being offered postgraduate training places in NHS hospitals, was unlawful. The new regime was unfair as it dashed the “legitimate expectations” of foreign doctors, the court said. The government’s defeat follows its insistence on approaching the House of Lords directly despite being refused leave to appeal by the appeal court last October.
