Clause 9 - Variation of authorisation
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
9:15 am
Mr Simon Burns (West Chelmsford, Conservative)
I am sorry, Mr. Atkinson. What I was trying to do—inadequately as you rightly pointed out—is to give an example of a service that could be removed by a foundation trust. In my understanding, that would require a variation of authorisation. I suspect that a local authority overview and scrutiny committee would think that the withdrawal of maternity services from a foundation trust would not be in the local community's interest. The scrutiny committee would make its views known to the regulator. As clause 9 is drafted, if the regulator ''is to'' have regard, he can take the committee's views on board but not necessarily agree with them, and thus allow the withdrawal of a maternity service.
Amendment No. 139 proposes that the regulator ''must'' have regard. The word ''must'' would strengthen the hand of a local authority overview and scrutiny committee to allow it to ensure that such a service would not be removed from local health care provisions in a foundation trust. The example I cited may be common in foundation trusts, and the hand of overview and scrutiny committees must be strengthened to ensure that the regulator would not have this apparent widespread freedom to have regard to the views of the scrutiny committee rather than abiding by them.