Clause 2
Health and Social Care Bill
10:45 am
Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North, Labour)
My concern about the amendment is that it puts a distance not only between the Government and the sector but between Parliament and the sector. I am concerned about the democratic input. For example, if the commission were seen to be more sympathetic to the private care sector than I thought appropriate, I would want Parliament and MPs to have much more say in what happens. If it is entirely independent, the Government can wash their hands; if it is not independent, the Government are still accountable to Parliament. Accountability to Parliament has not been as strong as it should have been in recent years, and I am looking forward to a much stronger input from the legislature rather than the Executive.
An analogy has been made with the independence of the Bank of England—I am one of those people who were deeply sceptical about the idea in the first place, and I apologise to my hon. Friends who might take a different view. However, I am sceptical, and I believe that if, for example, the Monetary Policy Committee started to diverge strongly from what the Government wish on interest rates, the Government would quickly make it less independent, and could effectively take back control at short notice.