Clause 13 - Code of practice relating to health care associated infections
Health Bill
12:00 pm
Andrew Lansley (Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Health; South Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
Will the Minister confirm that the first occasion on which a code of this kind was raised in the Department was October 2004? I recall, as will my right hon. Friend the Member for North-West Hampshire (Sir George Young), the Secretary of State being given powers in the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 to specify standards. Why was that not used to encapsulate the codes of practice? If it was desirable to do that and the Department was discussing it, why was it not done then? That would clearly have given statutory backing to the code and would have directly informed the Healthcare Commission's subsequent publication of standards that have to be met generally, rather than this being added on afterwards.