Clause 52 - Interpretation
Health Bill
6:15 pm
Jane Kennedy (Minister of State (Quality and Patient Safety), Department of Health; Liverpool, Wavertree, Labour)
I sought to say this in my opening comments. The only officers who will be able to discharge those powers will be officers of the Counter Fraud and Security Management Service, which is a special health authority at the moment, but which will merge with other organisations in the Business Services Authority, but only officers of the CFSMS within the BSA of the NHS will have those powers. As I sought to reassure the Committee earlier, they are highly trained individuals and the use of the powers will be supervised by senior officers in the service. I hope that I have reassured the hon. Gentleman that we take seriously the concerns that he and the hon. Member for Westbury raised this afternoon. I, too, want to be sure that we are taking forward and awarding powers that are appropriate to the nature of the problem, and I hope that I have demonstrated that this afternoon.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 52 ordered to stand part of the Bill.