Schedule 1 - Constitution of public benefit corporations
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
11:00 am
Dr Evan Harris (Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
I am keen to get to clause 15, so I will spend less than three minutes on this. The situation is clear. The Government maintain that this form of foundation trust will capture the public imagination and will be the best way forward to involve the local population in the running of their health services.
I believe that that is best done through democratising the commissioning side of the NHS and ensuring that the whole electorate locally elects those who have the ultimate responsibility for commissioning. That would be more than 500 people—as my amendment suggests—and certainly more than the 50 that the Conservative party has suggested. There is no necessary minimum number in the Government's proposals.
The amendment states that if the Government are so confident that this is the best way to capture the public imagination, they should set a threshold. For even the smallest hospital trust, 500 members in the public constituency is the minimum that would be required to demonstrate that this idea has the support of the local community, especially since there is no need for the local authority to approve the discussion. Local authorities are elected to represent people's interests, albeit not yet in the specifics of health care commissioning; at least, according to recent Scrutiny Committees.
Amendments Nos. 206, 176 and 177 taken together, as intended, will replace the paragraph:
''The constitution is to require a minimum number of members of each constituency.''
with the words:
''the constitution is to require a minimum number of 500 members of the public constituency.''
Therefore, the amendments must be taken together.