Clause 7 - Functions of Overview and Scrutiny Committees
Health and Social Care Bill
5:15 pm
Mr John Denham (Minister of State, Department of Health; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
There is some danger of going over old ground, but it is the Government's view that enabling local government to scrutinise the health service is a step forward because it will allow them start dealing with the democratic deficit in the NHS. It is inevitable that the pattern of health provision will not map directly on to local authority provision. We therefore need to make flexible arrangements to allow that to happen effectively. As scrutiny committees develop their role, they will gain great expertise, prove to be effective and, for the first time, bring a democratically elected local authority voice into shaping health services.
I acknowledge, as I have throughout, that it will be useful for the scrutiny committee to be informed by a range of information provided by the NHS, patients' organisations in general and patients forums, which undertake the inspections. We have set out in the explanatory notes a number of arrangements to ensure that it happens. I believe that it will be an informed process of scrutiny.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 7, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.