Schedule 2 - Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts
Health and Social Care(Community Health and Standards) Bill
11:00 am
Mr John Hutton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Barrow and Furness, Labour)
I wish to say a few words about the Conservative amendments. First, Government amendments Nos. 158 and 159 will ensure that the independent regulator will be more directly accountable to Parliament for his actions, rather than, as the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell said, being solely accountable to the Secretary of State. That is appropriate, and it emphasises the proper role of Parliament in those matters. The Government amendments emphasise the independence of the regulator, and I hope that the Committee will
support them, as they broadly cover the issues dealt with in amendments Nos. 74 and 243.
However, I cannot advise my hon. Friends to agree to amendment No. 238. The regulator may wish to include in his report to Parliament information that has been taken from financial and annual reports of NHS foundation trusts. As NHS foundation trusts are likely to require some weeks to prepare their reports, it is unlikely that the 12 weeks proposed in amendment No. 238 would give the regulator enough time to study and interpret them and to report fully on them to Parliament. That is, I am afraid, a pragmatic judgment. ''As soon as possible'' has a sense of urgency and immediacy; it means that we wish something to be done as quickly as possible. That is what we wish the regulator to do. However, putting an arbitrary time limit in the Bill could be counter-productive and could undermine the purpose and value of the regulator's report in Parliament.
I urge the Committee not to agree to the amendment. I understand that the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell is trying to elicit from us some understanding of our thought processes on the matter. However, I hope he will understand that rejecting his amendment does not mean that I wish the independent regulator to be unduly delayed. I, too, wish the report to be available to Parliament as quickly as possible.
I want the report to be available to Parliament as quickly as possible, but the Committee should take into account the variety of information sources on which the regulator will need to draw to prepare an effective and meaningful report. For that reason, we should give the independent regulator a strong steer that we want the report to arrive as soon as possible after the end of the year.
However, we should leave it to the regulator to put together the relevant information that will add to the scrutiny of his role and provide an opportunity for Parliament to judge the effectiveness of the regulatory arrangements, rather than shooting him in the foot by requiring him to produce his report within a specific time. If the Committee insists on that, we may end up with a less than useful report, and that would not be in anyone's interests.