Clause 51 - Annual reviews
Health and Social Care(Community Health and Standards) Bill
2:45 pm
Mr Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell, Conservative)
Thank you, Mr. Griffiths. I was trying to respond to the Under-Secretary, who is hanging on my every word.
I do not doubt the sincerity of the hon. Member for Cardiff, Central, but in return I ask him to accept the Conservative party's desire for as much independence as possible to be given to the new commission. The freer it is from Whitehall, the freer it will be from the Secretary of State's involvement in its work. Thus it will be a genuinely independent scrutineer and watchdog of the performance of the health service, from the work of individual clinicians in hospital units to the work and strategy of the Secretary of State. It can do that job only if it is independent. Too much of the clause, and the Bill, chip away at that independence, and that is not right.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 51, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.