Clause 243

Part of Health and Social Care Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 1:15 pm on 31 March 2011.

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Photo of Emily Thornberry Emily Thornberry Shadow Minister (Health) 1:15, 31 March 2011

I am grateful to the Minister for the opportunity to explain what amendment 653 is about before he decides that he does not want it. However, you never know; after seven weeks, this might be the one—[ Interruption. ] Perhaps we will just have to wait until the Prime Minister steps in.

Clause 243 is about the publication of information. It states that the Information Centre must publish all information that it collects, but there are some exceptions. Those are, first, when

“the information is in a form which identifies any provider”,

which makes sense, and secondly, when

“the information is in a form which identifies any individual”.

The third exception, however, is when

“the information is of a description specified in a direction given to the Centre by the Secretary of State or the Board.”

All information will be published, therefore, apart from the information that the Secretary of State would rather is not, and we wondered what that was. Will the Minister give us an example of what that information would be, particularly in light of the debate that we had on the previous clause?

Bupa, for example, might say to the Minister, “We are happy to provide services to the NHS, but we see no reason why we should be providing all this information to the Information Centre. As far as we are concerned, it should be confidential, because it will embarrass us commercially otherwise.” The Secretary of State might say, “Yes, we understand.” Would the Information Centre not publish information in such circumstances?

The Minister’s response was interesting. I wonder whether he has thought it through and whether there has been real consultation with private providers about the attitude of the Department on publishing all the information on any services provided by the private sector to the national health service. I am interested to know whether I am right, and whether clause 243(1)(c) covers those points.