NHS Redress Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Andy Burnham (Minister of State (Delivery and Quality), Department of Health; Leigh, Labour)
I beg to move,
That—
(1) during proceedings on the NHS Redress Bill [Lords] the Standing Committee shall (in addition to its first meeting at 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday 13th June) meet—
(a) at 4.00 p.m. on Tuesday 13th June;
(b) at 9.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m. on Thursday 15th June;
(c) at 10.30 a.m. and 4.00 p.m. on Tuesday 20th June; and
(d) at 9.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m. on Thursday 22nd June.
(2) the proceedings shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at 4.00 p.m. on Thursday 22nd June.
May I begin by welcoming you to the Chair,Miss Begg. It is a pleasure to serve under you. I am glad that we can get off to an agreeable start and that it will not get too hot in the room. We had a good debate on Second Reading. The Bill received broad support from across the House. I hope that the time we have allotted in this programme motion will allow members of the Committee to cover the detail in full because we do need to do that. I also welcome the hon. Member for Billericay (Mr. Baron) and the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr. O'Brien), a fellow north-west Member. I see the hon. Member for Southport (Dr. Pugh) too, so it is quite a north-west triumvirate.
I was grateful to both Opposition Front Benchers for their support on Second Reading. I think that it indicates broad assent to the principles of the Bill. That is not to say that there are not issues of substance that we will want to consider carefully, but I think that we have allotted sufficient time for our debates. May I welcome particularly the hon. Member for Romsey (Sandra Gidley)? She and I served on the Health Committee what feels like many years ago. I am pleased to be working with her again on this Bill.
I should like to say a word about Labour members of the Committee, particularly my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Mr. Simon), who works closely with the organisation Action against Medical Accidents. I am pleased that he is serving on this Committee. We look forward to his contributions. I hope that where there may be differences of emphasis between us we can work through them in a spirit of co-operation and agreement, as is normally the case with my hon. Friend. I am trying to emulate his style: I may grow my hair as long his, although it may soon be ruled out of order.
There are Members on both sides of the Committee who take a detailed interest in this subject. As I said on Second Reading, Members of Parliament gain expertise and knowledge of it through their efforts to help constituents along the difficult road towards a resolution and, dare I use that word, “closure” of their experience in the health service. We know how difficult that road can be at times. We know the obstacles that can be thrown in front of people seeking redress. I hope that in making our comments we can reflect on the experiences that all of us have had cause to work through. I hope that the Bill will benefit from that informed comment.
Finally, I pay tribute to the usual channels in scheduling our eight sittings. I was relieved to see that careful attention had been paid to proceedings in Germany. I am delighted that we should be able to get out in good time for kick-off on Thursday and then again next Tuesday. I do not know whether it had more to do with luck or good planning. My hon. Friend the Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies) is a fiery Welshman, so perhaps he thinks that we will leave the Committee for a dose of disappointment. He has helped to make me feel happy, relaxed and without needing one eye on kick-off time, which should aid our proceedings.
We have an excellent Committee of Members with a broad range of experience across the health service and in the matters to be considered. We have given sufficient time to do justice to the complex issues involved, which are important to our constituents.