Clause 2
Health and Social Care Bill
2:45 pm
Stephen O'Brien (Shadow Minister, Health; Eddisbury, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 156, in clause 2, page 2, line 1, at end insert—
‘( ) The Commission has the general function of encouraging improvement in the provision of health care by and for NHS bodies and in the provision of adult social care in England.’.
We move to the commission’s functions in clause 2. Even as a trained lawyer, I would have surpassed myself to come up with this. Subsection (1) states:
“The Commission has the functions conferred on it by or under any enactment.”
That obviously does not improve our general understanding. If this is a legislative catch-all, it is unnecessary. Alternatively, perhaps it is based on a concern that the legislation is so framed that we do not yet fully understand the purpose, and that the ability is therefore required to throw at the remit of the commission anything that not just this but any Government might choose to throw at it. That does not seem quite the thorough and rigorous approach to legislation that we would expect of the House, particularly given that the commission is designed to be the successor body to organisations that, it is admitted, already function well. They deserve a little more respect than subsection (1) indicates.
Amendment No. 156 thus puts a general function in the Bill. It really is unobjectionable; I would like to think that the Minister will have no difficulty whatsoever with it. I wish to place on the record that I will not hold him guilty of an overweening pride of authorship—as I frequently have with many of his colleagues—if he will sincerely take points on board in a meretricious way, rather than regarding them as unacceptable simply because they happen to be proposed from this side of the Committee.
I wish to see, through this amendment, Parliament’s will reflected in our purpose of considering this legislation. It is not merely because the amendment builds, as I was describing, on the well-established practices of highly dedicated people who have already committed themselves to doing good work in those predecessor bodies. After all, we are not here just for the purpose of enacting further legislation, but for our service users—our constituents—to ensure that we are their interface regarding what works best for them. This amendment will give service users the explicit assurance that they need that the regulator is acting on their behalf and not on the state’s—as if the state were somehow more important than individuals. I can think of no Bill dealing with a wider or more vulnerable group in society. Therefore, it is important to ensure a clear purpose here.