Clause 24 - Declaration of financial interests, gifts, etc
Health and Social Care Bill
3:30 pm
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
I do not know whether other hon. Members have noticed the wonderful howler in paragraph 105 of the explanatory notes, which talks about doctors normally being obliged to
refuse to all patients except those of low intrinsic value.
In the run-up to the general election, I am already working on how selectively to quote that and turn it into a Government definition of a patient of low intrinsic value.
The five amendments would insert a de minimis concept into the arrangements, so that they would refer to gifts within a certain value, eliminating a bureaucratic structure for gifts of minimal value.
First, the amendments would ensure that expected future benefits were declarable. All members of the Committee will be familiar with that concept. The rules on declaration of interests in the House include declarations of any expectation that the Member might have of a future financial benefit. Especially given the concerns raised by the Harold Shipman case, the expectation of future financial benefit is a material consideration, so we have made specific reference to bequests.
Secondly, the amendment, as tabled, may not do the trick. However, I hope that the Minister will accept the suggestion that practitioners who are aware that they are beneficiaries of a patient's will should register that fact. It may be argued that many doctors are genuinely unaware that they are beneficiaries of people's wills. I find the idea slightly strange, but I am told that it is not uncommon for people to make general practitioners beneficiaries of their wills. However, when practitioners are involved in persuading the patient to draw up a will or in helping to redraft the will, they will have knowledge of it and that should be required to be registered.