Report (2nd Day)

Part of Health and Social Care Bill – in the House of Lords at 3:30 pm on 13 February 2012.

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Photo of Lord Walton of Detchant Lord Walton of Detchant Crossbench 3:30, 13 February 2012

I support the amendment and will make a point about costs. As I said last week in a debate on education and training, since the health service began, the actual financial consequences of training specialists in all branches of medicine-surgeons, physicians, psychiatrists and all other specialists-have been the responsibility of the National Health Service. Many of us will remember the days of SIFT-the service increment for teaching-a financial increment that was given to hospitals and other organisations that provided postgraduate training at the same time as training undergraduate students. I have, I believe, an assurance from the Minister that that process is going to continue, which is extremely welcome. So I am not speaking primarily about finance.

However, I want to raise a point with the Minister that was touched on only superficially in the very helpful debate we had last week where the Minister tabled a series of very important and constructive government amendments and gave a number of very crucial assurances. I particularly want to raise the interrelationship between the health education authority and the regulatory authorities, which has not yet been clarified. The Explanatory Notes mention the importance of Health Education England working with professional regulators. I shall refer to the General Medical Council as an example because I was its president from 1982 to 1989, and before that, for seven years, chairman of its education committee. The fundamental point is that under the Medical Act, the General Medical Council's education committee has the responsibility of ensuring,

"high standards of medical education and co-ordinating all stages of medical education".

It is the regulator. If a new medical school is created, it has the authority to inspect it and consider whether its curriculum is sufficient. It has the authority to inspect the qualifying examinations of the medical schools in order to make certain that they are achieving an appropriate standard.

The fundamental point is that the GMC and the other regulators are not just stakeholder groups. Their statutory powers,

"provide independent assurance to patients, the professions and the service that national standards apply across the UK both in terms of the quality of medical training and the outcomes it produces".

Of course, the important difference here is that Health Education England applies only to England, whereas the GMC and the other regulators are responsible for the oversight of education across the entire United Kingdom. What I seek from the Minister-formally, if I may-is an assurance that the activities of Health Education England will not usurp or attempt to usurp any of the statutory responsibilities of the regulatory authorities, which are already enshrined in law.