Clause 2
Health Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm
Stephen O'Brien (Shadow Minister, Health; Eddisbury, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment 3, in clause 2, page 1, line 16, after ‘Constitution’, insert ‘, Handbook, and Statement of Accountability’.
I am trying to multi-task by turning off my phone at the same time as I introduce amendment 3. This is a probing amendment to tease out the status of the handbook, particularly the statement of accountability. The amendment would ensure that NHS bodies have regard not only to the constitution, but to the handbook and statement of accountability.
Will the Minister explain why the statement of accountability is not in the Bill, when the handbook is? In purely legislative terms, that gives equal status to the handbook and the constitution and lesser status to the statement of accountability. If de jure the documents are of different value, conversely they seem to be de facto of the same value. The constitution cannot stand alone, which can only undermine it, because it needs the 148-page handbook and the 20-page statement of accountability to support it. Alternatively, the Minister might argue that the constitution is, in fact, superior to the handbook and the statement of accountability. If they are different, how is that so and why are they different from one another in that respect? Why has one but not the other been included in the Bill?
Furthermore, although paragraph 7 of the constitution states that
“the Government will ensure that there is always a clear and up-to-date statement of accountability for this purpose,”
there seems to be no legislative responsibility or mechanism for doing so. Why is that the case and how will it work?