Further written evidence to be reported to the House
Health and Social Care Bill
4:00 pm
Lady Justice Smith: Yes, broadly, but this is very much a bare bones Bill. A huge amount of detail will be left for delegated legislation. One of my difficulties at the moment is seeing exactly how it will work because so much is left for secondary legislation. I welcome the creation of an independent adjudicator and the change to the standard of proof, which were recommendations of mine. I am particularly concerned that I do not understand how re-validation will work. The Bill gives only the vaguest of clues about how it will work, and I am a little worried about that.
As far as the independent adjudicator is concerned, I know that the General Medical Council has put in a memorandum, which it kindly showed me in advance, expressing concerns about the independence of the adjudicator, and I share those concerns. It is vital that an independent adjudicator should be independent of Government as well as the GMC. The purpose of my recommendation was that we should have someone adjudicating who is independent of the GMC because it cannot properly be investigator, prosecutor and judge in the same causes. I was concerned about its human rights compliance. That has been accepted, and we will now have an independent adjudicator, but it should be independent of Government as well as the GMC.