Health and Social Care Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at on 17 January 2008.
Stephen O'Brien
Shadow Minister (Health)
9:00,
17 January 2008
On a point of order, Mr. Conway. I thank the Minister for his two letters that we have received this morning, one on the cost of the new commission and one on complaints handling, which relate to an undertaking given in our proceedings. However, I was a bit disappointed that, while the second letter on complaints identified my question about the backlog of complaints—column 123 of the Official Report—it did not contain the figures. It stated merely that the backlog has now reduced significantly and the Healthcare Commission is now meeting the service level agreement target agreed with the Department of Health to close 95 per cent. of cases within 12 months. I should be grateful to receive the figures in respect of the backlog. Given that we may be debating schedule 5, depending on progress, either today or Tuesday, I should appreciate the Minister providing us with those figures during this morning’s sitting. I ask him, through you, Mr. Conway, whether that might be possible.
Derek Conway
Conservative, Old Bexley and Sidcup
Fortunately, Chairmen of Public Bill Committees are not responsible for the content of ministerial replies. That is a great relief to us all. I am sure that the Minister may want to refer to the matter during this morning’s proceedings, but it is not a point of order for the Chair. I am sure that he will deal with it in due course.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
