Clause 43 - Information and advice
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
10:00 am
Mr Paul Burstow (Sutton and Cheam, Liberal Democrat)
I support the group of amendments, as they are useful additions to the Bill. They enable the Government to give substance to one of the things that the Secretary of State said last April, when he introduced the report ''Delivering the NHS Plan'', which was that if commissions are to act as judge, the public will be the jury. It is hard for a jury to act in its proper capacity if it does not have access to information and if information is not freely provided to it. To include a clear requirement in the Bill that such information should be published in this way is a useful addition.
It would be helpful to hear the Under-Secretary's thoughts on how the two commissions will discharge that responsibility and, specifically, if he could set out how he envisages the public being kept informed about health care and social care, about the activities of the two commissions and about the findings from their inspections of health and social care.