Clause 59 - Control of patient information
Health and Social Care Bill
11:00 am
Mr John Denham (Minister of State, Department of Health; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
In practical terms, the Secretary of State must be able to include a broad group of activities or circumstances within a set of regulations. It is difficult to assess precisely how many registers will exist for how many activities at any particular time, but the agreement of both Houses of Parliament will be required, which is a sensible procedure. The scheme will be broader than requiring regulations for each individual activity.
The expert advisory committee will advise the Secretary of State on the wider range of issues and requirements—not expressly built into the Bill—that must be taken into account. It will be a probing body and, to respond to the recent point raised by the hon. Member for Isle of Wight, it will be able seriously to challenge whether the use of patient information is justifiable in a particular case. An alternative way of carrying out the exercise, using anonymised information, may be possible. The body will be able to challenge institutional laziness—doing things in a particular way, simply because it has always been done that way in the past—in the NHS.
I hope that the Committee is reassured about the Bill's safeguards on the use of this power, and that I have argued effectively in favour of assessing matters on a case-by-case basis and in favour of real consultation with the NHS, patients and their representatives.