Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 5:00 pm on 13 October 2003.

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Photo of Baroness Barker Baroness Barker Liberal Democrat 5:00, 13 October 2003

I thank the Minister for that reply, which I rather suspected would be along those lines. It is therefore important to explain that, while I understand that equality legislation as it stands has not been changed, one reason why the amendment was tabled in such a form is that there is some doubt about the extent to which that legislation applies to healthcare. That is why the much tighter and neater form of expression of how equality legislation needs to cut across the whole of the health service—it is right to include the regulator, CHAI and CSCI in those functions—is important. The drafting of the amendment makes much clearer what the outcomes of that should be, without recourse to other legislation.

That said, I accept in part some of the Minister's comments about how existing legislation will be binding on some functions of some of the new offices. I shall study his reply in detail, and may come back to the matter at a later stage. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.