Clause 3 - Supplementary payments to NHS trusts and Primary Care Trusts
Health and Social Care Bill
6:00 pm
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
I will not take any more interventions. The purpose of my comments has been to reassert the reasoning behind this series of amendments which has sought to make information available about the basis on which money is distributed. To put it at its most neutral, the amendments encourage the Government to choose mechanisms that would reassure people that money is allocated on a proper, fair and equal basis. That would disperse any lingering suspicion that the money available for distribution under the mechanisms of clauses 2 and 3 could be distributed in a way that was not fair or even-handed.
I accept the Minister's assurance that he does not intend to cover up any of those matters. In due course, he may feel able to go further than he has today in reassuring the Committee about the availability of information in the public domain. However, our point has been made, and I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
The Chairman, being of the opinion that the principle of the clause and any matters arising thereon had been adequately discussed in the course of debate on the amendment proposed thereto, forthwith put the Question, pursuant to Standing Orders Nos. 68 and 89, That the clause stand part of the Bill.
Question agreed to.
Clause 3 ordered to stand part of the Bill.