Schedule 1 - Constitution of public benefit corporations
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
4:45 pm
Dr Evan Harris (Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
Before the Under-Secretary continues her remarks, I am still surprised by her view that to extend the franchise, if it can be called that—although I think that that is dubious—to family members of patients would be a distortion. She says that if the boundary were drawn along a certain line and there was a patient with a large family living inside that line who was a member of the public constituency anyway, there would be 10 potential members and therefore votes for that family. However, simply by virtue of living just outside the area—even if that family had greater concerns and experiences of the treatment of their loved one—those family members would not be allowed to become members. Such geographical variations cannot be justified. The Under-Secretary has been known to refer to them as a postcode lottery.