The Department of Health have confirmed they will not overturn the current regulations regarding language tests for nurses.

Despite recently tweaking the laws so all doctors from within the European Economic Area (EEA) must have a decent grasp of English to work in the UK, the DoH yesterday said this wouldn't be the case for nurses.

A DoH spokesman told Nursing Times that the need to alter the laws for nurses was not as necessary as the majority worked in employed environments, as opposed to doctors who were sometimes self-employed.

This means that foreigners will continue to be able to work in nursing and nurse manager jobs regardless of their ability to speak English.

In announcing the move, the Government have rubbished recent claims from Lord Winston that nurses with poor language skills were putting patients in danger.

Speaking to The Mail Online, Lord Winston was keen to back up his opinions recently made in the national press.

He said: "It is an important point I was making, I am not in any way racist. There is a very important aspect of healing that we forget. Communicating with the patient and hearing their anxiety is often more important than the drugs they are taking."

Nurses from outside the EEA are regularly given language tests before beginning employment in the UK.