Clause 12 - Patients' Forums: Annual Reports
Health and Social Care Bill
7:00 pm
Mr John Denham (Minister of State, Department of Health; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
On the latter point, the hon. Gentleman is quite right to mention that the Secretary of State has a range of powers to ensure that the information is provided. The very existence of those powers is the biggest reason why he would not need to use them all in the explicit way that the hon. Gentleman has suggested. The powers are there, if they are needed.
It is a debateable point whether the advisory forums would be significantly stronger if the whole plan of structure and constitution regulations had been put in the Bill. Given the function of the ILAFs as an advisory forum for the health authority, the Secretary of State's power of direction, the ability that we have to ensure that the patients forums are representatives within the advisory forums and our keenness to allow the sort of flexibility that can deal with the problem—identified by the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam—of health authorities wishing to approach this role in different ways, we have preferred not to put it on the face of the Bill. I agree that this is a debateable point, but I do not believe that anything is lost by doing it through directions from the Secretary of State, and that will be proven to be the case in years to come.