Schedule 7 - The Council for the Regulation of Health Care Professionals
NHS Reform and Health Care Professions Bill
12:45 pm
Mr John Hutton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Barrow and Furness, Labour)
There is no such thing as a free lunch. All public bodies must operate within the resources that have been allocated to them. Yes, it is not cheap to commission pieces of specialist work from private sector bodies, or indeed any bodies outside government. It is right—I wish that I had referred to this point when the hon. Member for Westbury asked about the council's costs—to draw the Committee's attention to our intention to fund the council through the Department of Health, which will not entail passing on costs to the GMC, the General Dental Council or the General Optical Council. The council will be funded centrally, and it must operate within its budget. The way in which it chooses to discharge its functions or delegate and commission outside work must be compatible with its budget. There is no blank cheque, but by the same token the council must be properly resourced so that it can go about its jobs effectively. Like all of us in our daily lives, it must balance what it would like with what it has to spend. The council will be properly resourced, but how it decides to use its resources will be its concern, which accords with the spirit of operating at arm's length from the Government.