Part of Health and Social Care Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 2:45 pm on 17 January 2008.
Stephen O'Brien
Shadow Minister (Health)
2:45,
17 January 2008
If ever we needed proof that there is great benefit in having a Member who represents a Welsh Constituency on the Bill we have just heard it. That is absolutely vital because he is a better test of understanding than someone who happens to represent an English constituency with a Welsh border, with patients freely flowing between the two constituencies. There has been a very public and major dispute between the Countess of Chester hospital and the Flintshire local health board about funding for patients coming from Wales to be treated by the NHS in England. They settled on £1 million on the prospect of future flows, but that is still way short of the true recovery costs. Those are real problems.
My hon. Friend the Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire made an important point about ensuring that the proposal is thoroughly thought through, not just at the conceptual level but deeply at the practical level, given that there are two different sets of political accountabilities. The Minister should bear in mind the practicalities and the difficulties. I am an English MP who frequently has to ask the Secretary of State for Wales—when he has that one of his two hats on, assuming that he will continue in the post in any case—about matters in Wales. When I seek to question him, he refers me immediately to the First Minister, and the First Minister says, “I have absolutely no need, right or intention to answer you. You are an English MP, and I have no accountability to you. Go hang.”
That is how it works. We have an absence of accountability, hence my hon. Friend’s germane points. I hope that the Minister will have an opportunity to ensure that we can set our minds at rest. Otherwise, we could be off to a rocky start.
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.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
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.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
