Clause 16 - Intervention orders
Health and Social Care Bill
10:30 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
If we all learned something from our first sitting—it was the first sitting of a Committee that I have served on under the new arrangements—it was that we must be fairly self-disciplined and ration our time. I shall therefore be brief in responding to what the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Mr. Burstow) said about the amendments.
We shall consider clauses 16, 2 and 3 this morning. Together, they deal with the Secretary of State's powers to intervene in the running of health authorities and trusts. That is literally true for clause 16, which will allow him to take control and to position his placemen to assume control. More invidiously, clauses 2 and 3 will allow him to use the power of the purse to ensure that his will is done to the farthest corners of his empire. The clauses give the lie to the Government assertion that the Bill is decentralising. The Bill gives huge powers to the Secretary of State, and these three clauses in particular embody that transfer of power.