Clause 3 - GENERAL DUTY OF REGULATOR
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
2:30 pm
Mr John Hutton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Barrow and Furness, Labour)
I am not sure that I follow the hon. Gentleman's point. If he is saying that the regulator is simply a replication of the Secretary of State, he has fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the Bill. The Secretary of State has a range of additional functions relating to, for example, resources and national standards that are not the responsibility of the regulator, whose statutory functions are set out clearly in part I of the Bill. There is no ambiguity about the respective roles of the regulator and the Secretary of State.