Part of Health and Social Care Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:00 pm on 17 January 2008.
Ben Bradshaw
Minister of State (Regional Affairs) (South West), The Minister of State, Department of Health
3:00,
17 January 2008
Clause 64 requires the Care Quality Commission and the Welsh Government to co-operate, and that co-operation, which has been good in respect of the formulation of the Bill, will continue. I shall come to Government amendments in that regard in a moment.
The commission will not judge Welsh standards. It has only an English remit, but of course it will co-ordinate with the Welsh authorities to satisfy itself that provision which may be commissioned cross-border meets the quality and safety requirements that it would expect for English patients. If the hon. Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire would like a detailed exposition in the form of a letter as to how we expect that to work in practice, I will happily provide it for him.
It would be up to the commission to decide whether it wanted to judge the quality of a service being provided against its own or Welsh criteria. We would not want to tie its hands in that regard. Based on that, I hope that the hon. Lady will not press the new clause to a Division.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England and it is responsible for developing and consulting on its methodology for assessing whether providers are meeting the registration requirements.
The House of Commons votes by dividing. Those voting Aye (yes) to any proposition walk through the division lobby to the right of the Speaker and those voting no through the lobby to the left. In each of the lobbies there are desks occupied by Clerks who tick Members' names off division lists as they pass through. Then at the exit doors the Members are counted by two Members acting as tellers. The Speaker calls for a vote by announcing "Clear the Lobbies". In the House of Lords "Clear the Bar" is called. Division Bells ring throughout the building and the police direct all Strangers to leave the vicinity of the Members’ Lobby. They also walk through the public rooms of the House shouting "division". MPs have eight minutes to get to the Division Lobby before the doors are closed. Members make their way to the Chamber, where Whips are on hand to remind the uncertain which way, if any, their party is voting. Meanwhile the Clerks who will take the names of those voting have taken their place at the high tables with the alphabetical lists of MPs' names on which ticks are made to record the vote. When the tellers are ready the counting process begins - the recording of names by the Clerk and the counting of heads by the tellers. When both lobbies have been counted and the figures entered on a card this is given to the Speaker who reads the figures and announces "So the Ayes [or Noes] have it". In the House of Lords the process is the same except that the Lobbies are called the Contents Lobby and the Not Contents Lobby. Unlike many other legislatures, the House of Commons and the House of Lords have not adopted a mechanical or electronic means of voting. This was considered in 1998 but rejected. Divisions rarely take less than ten minutes and those where most Members are voting usually take about fifteen. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P9 at the UK Parliament site.
