Clause 71 - Transfer of criminal liabilities of certain
Health Bill
6:45 pm
Andrew Murrison (Shadow Minister, Health; Westbury, Conservative)
We now enter the final furlong of the Committee stage. The clause is particularly welcome; the amendments simply beef up the wording, which places obligations on organisations to have their liabilities transferred. The wording seems to me to be permissive rather than obligatory. The amendments would beef up the wording so that the liabilities were transferred.
We are discussing criminal liabilities in the context of NHS bodies, but it is worth pointing out that the Government establish, disestablish and merge NHS bodies at a phenomenal rate and it is particularly welcome that they should ensure that when they do so, the bodies' liabilities are transferred to successor organisations.
Many of us who have witnessed the demise of various health authorities in the past few years will bear witness to the fact that once the bodies are dissolved, their sins of omission and commission often dissolve with them. I have had a five-year quest to find out why certain things have gone wrong with my own local health care economy. The common factor appears to be a health authority that has long since dissolved and the persons associated with it dispersed. To be perfectly honest, trying to pin anything on the authority is a bit like trying to nail jelly to the wall. Any measure that helps us to transfer liabilities of any sort from one NHS body to another is to be warmly welcomed. The case in question is clearly a criminal matter.
It would be nice to hear the Minister say that liabilities in general should be properly transferred when bodies disestablish, merge or close down. Given the rate at which such bodies appear to be doing just that, it is important to retain the audit trail so that we can attribute things when they go wrong. That goes for bodies and, in the context of proper management, individuals. Since I have been a Member of Parliament, dealing with my local health care economy has been a source of great frustration. I welcome the clause to the extent that it helps us attribute things properly. I hope that in that spirit, the Minister will accept our amendments.