Clause 12 - Further functions of the Commission for Health Improvement
NHS Reform & Health Care Professions
12:00 pm
Mr John Hutton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Barrow and Furness, Labour)
There is not a problem. There just are no statutory powers. The Secretary of State has no statutory powers to specify where, and in what circumstances, the medical royal colleges should exercise their functions, and nor should he have any. Those are properly issues of professional regulation and they should be matters of professional expertise within the medical royal colleges. The same is true of the General Medical Council, which has a remit and responsibility in the same context. We need clarity as to whom we are talking about. There is clearly a responsibility on the Secretary of State to co-ordinate the agencies for which he has responsibility, to avoid some of the negative effects that Opposition Members have identified. However, the extent of that responsibility should be clear, and it does not reach the medical royal colleges.
The issues have been pretty widely aired. I have sympathy with the point made by the hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire. We do not think that it is necessary to amend the Bill to achieve what he wants. We already have the necessary powers. We shall consider all the issues in the round soon, when we respond to Professor Kennedy's report.