Clause 3
Health Bill [Lords]
5:00 pm
Stephen O'Brien (Shadow Minister, Health; Eddisbury, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment 11, in clause 3, page 3, line 3, at end insert—
‘(2) The Constitution must be revised whenever its constituent parts cease to be consistent with legislation.’.
With two O’Briens and an O’Hara in the room it is a blessed relief that we are not speaking Irish or double-Irish. Amendment 11 would revise the constitution whenever the legislation underpinning it changes in such a way as to bring legislation and the constitution into contradiction. Earlier, I set out our commitment to the core principles of the NHS as established in the NHS plan, which was the subject of amendment 5. We will continue to seek to enshrine those principles in legislation—we had some enjoyable teasing out on amendment 7. I believe that the Government intend to continue to believe in that too. However, there is explanatory paraphernalia in the constitution itself, and I am thinking particularly of the responsibility under section 2b which runs:
“You should keep appointments, or cancel within reasonable time. Receiving treatment within the maximum waiting times may be compromised unless you do.”
Sound stuff, leaving aside the somewhat Orwellian veiled threat that it seems to encompass, or perhaps not, although it sounds commanding.
The Secretary of State has just taken up his post and promised a bonfire of the targets. Given the enormous volume of regulations that have indeed been introduced on this Government’s watch, even if the bonfire is as fierce as it was at Buncefield in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead, as extensive as the fire of London, or even as destructive as the very fires of hell, I cannot see any of those regulations being burnt to a sufficiently small number. So much legislation seems to be being produced, not least by regulation, that I hope that the Minister will confirm what will happen in the event that the constitution ceases to be underpinned by legislation. It is important that we have a backstop, which this amendment is intended to provide, in case there is a mismatch—as one can envisage happening quite easily—between the legislative underpinning and the constitution, even as amended, in the overlapping Venn diagram, which I referred to earlier.