Table
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
9:15 am
Mr John Hutton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Barrow and Furness, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman has uncharacteristically failed to grasp an important element of parliamentary procedure. The House decided that the Bill will be reported on 19 June, and the Committee, as I understand it, does not have the locus or competence to change a decision of the House. If the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs. Gillan) or other hon. Members want to sit on extra days, evenings or mornings, a Programming Sub-Committee can investigate that. However, that is not my preference, and I am probably not alone in that regard.
Last week, I apologised to the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon for not responding when he raised the issue of GP clauses in the House. When hon. Members can debate the GP clauses will depend very much on when the British Medical Association starts the ballot on the proposed new general medical services contract, and it will also depend on the result of that ballot. That may or may not be within the time scale of the Committee's consideration of the Bill. I do not know the answer to that question. However, if the ballot produces a yes vote—which I hope will be the case because it is a good contract for GPs and patients in primary care—and GPs decide to endorse the contract, if there is sufficient time the necessary amendments will be tabled during the Committee stage. That is probably the strongest assurance that I can give, but I realise that it may not be as strong as the hon. Gentleman would like.
The hon. Member for South-West Devon (Mr. Streeter) raised a fair point about the amendments being tabled in sufficient time for the Committee to consider them properly, and I assure him that that will be the case. If he reads the amendment paper, he will realise that we tabled amendments last week to part 1 of the Bill, and the Committee has two weeks to consider them. We started fairly, and we will continue fairly.
I know that there are concerns about the timing and allocation of sittings, but my strongly held view is that a fair attempt has been made to ensure that the Committee has sufficient time to consider the various clauses and amendments. I hope that the Committee will now endorse the sittings selection.
Question put and agreed to.