Clause 3 - ''Appropriate consent'': adults
Human Tissue Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Andrew Lansley (South Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I am grateful to the Minister for at least making clear what I suppose we had expected, but she does not say what the Government's intentions are. In advance of legislation that covers the whole field, it may be premature to ask them to state their intentions in relation to the important aspect of consent for mentally incapacitated persons, but that means that we will not be able to consider the issue in the context of the Bill.
Although we hope that the Bill will in due course become the Human Tissue Act and that it may be amended, there will be a time during which the review process has clearly failed to complete its course in this significant respect. Those of us who are focusing on the provisions in the Bill may not have the opportunity to give future amendments the same scrutiny.
There is little scope for us to press the Government further, when they consider themselves procedurally, if not constitutionally, constrained from being able to say more. On that basis, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.