Clause 44 - Dispensing of NHS prescriptions
Health and Social Care Bill
3:30 pm
Sir George Young (North West Hampshire, Conservative)
I have a short question: what on earth is the clause doing in the Bill? The clause amends the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978. Health matters have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament. As we shall discover when we reach clause 45, Scotland has enormous powers to do what it wants with health and social care without any reference to the United Kingdom Parliament. Despite that wide power to do what it wants, apparently it cannot vary the community of pharmaceutical services in Scotland without primary legislation in Westminster.
I have looked at the back of the Bill to see who is supporting the legislation. The Minister and the Secretary of State for Health are, as is the Secretary of State for Wales, but the name of the Secretary of State for Scotland does not appear. There are no Scottish Labour Members on the Committee to help us with this difficult clause and—goodness me—there are not many Committees considering Bills on which Scottish Members can now serve, as they do not apply to Scotland. The Bill applies to Scotland, but there are no Scottish Members serving on the Committee considering it.
The explanatory notes state that they
``have been prepared by the Department of Health, with assistance from the Wales Office''.
There is no mention of the Scotland Office. Has some terrible mistake been made?