Clause 23 - Failing NHS foundation trusts
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
6:30 pm
Mr Simon Burns (West Chelmsford, Conservative)
If the Committee will forgive me, I will deal with amendments Nos. 407 and 408. Although amendment No. 412 comes before the others, it is incidental to amendment No. 407, which is a probing amendment in one respect but which raises an important issue.
Clause 23 refers to failing NHS foundation hospitals. Rightly, the Government recognise that this is not an ideal world and thus there may be circumstances in which a foundation trust fails and needs to be taken over. It would be irresponsible of the Government not to have a clause to deal with such an eventuality. However, I am slightly worried that clause 23(1) lays down the rules and procedures that the regulator should adopt if he is satisfied that an NHS foundation trust contravenes or fails to comply with any term of its authorisation, and so on. It states what the regulator can do by issuing a notice to the trust to take action as outlined in the Bill.
Although that is a logical and reasonable course of action, I am concerned that there does not seem to be any opportunity in the procedures—unless I am mistaken or it has been hidden later in the Bill—for the foundation trusts to explain their actions to the regulator if they feel that it is warranted, or to appeal against any findings or instructions by the regulator. I should have thought it reasonable for a foundation trust to have that power.
The regulator may not agree with a foundation trust, having heard its explanation and justification of why it believes that he was incorrect or unfairly using his powers. However, the trust should have the opportunity to make its case and to try to persuade the regulator that he is wrong; or that it may not yet be the appropriate moment for him to exercise his powers because it has seen the errors of its ways or understood that it must improve its compliance with the original authorisation. I will be interested to hear the Minister's response.
Amendment No. 408 is a probing amendment, because subsection (3) reads:
''The regulator may require the trust, the directors or the board of governors to do, or not to do, specified things or things of a specified description within a specified period.''
I am not a lawyer, but I suspect that that is correct legal terminology and a necessary catch-all expression; I was going to say that it covered a multitude of sins, but that is probably the wrong expression. However, as I do not fully appreciate what the provision is getting at, I should be grateful if the Minister said what are the
''specified things or things of a specified description''
and what is a ''specified period''? Who specifies those things? What restrictions or safeguards are put on the specification, and who checks that the specified things are in order? I am sure that there is a simple answer to those questions, and any lawyers on the Committee
will probably have guessed it before the Minister starts his explanation. However, us humble non-lawyers would appreciate the benefit of his legal training.