Health and Social Care Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 1:00 pm on 17 January 2008.
Stephen O'Brien
Shadow Minister (Health)
What is the length of time envisaged to allow a surrogate to take on the responsibility of registration in the case of the death of a registered person, and will that surrogate be liable in the same terms as the original registrant?
Ben Bradshaw
Minister of State (Regional Affairs) (South West), The Minister of State, Department of Health
I am afraid that I will have to come back to the hon. Gentleman on that one, as well.
Angela Browning
Deputy Chairman, The Conservative Party
I had not expected to speak to this Clause, but a case with which I have been dealing this morning has prompted me to ask the Minister to consider a particular set of circumstances.
That case—perhaps I should have tabled an Amendment as a result of it—involves a learning-disabled woman aged 65 who has been in some form of care or residential care all her life, and who was in residential care in my Constituency when the care home closed because of the owner’s age. No one else would take the care home on, so I negotiated with social services and they agreed to move the woman to Hampshire, so that she could live nearer to her only remaining relatives—they did not take on caring for her, although they obviously took an interest. Unfortunately, her carer died in her sleep quite unexpectedly in November, and as an interim measure she went to live with her brother and sister-in-law, who are older than her. Now that she is living with them, the Devon authority paying for her care says that that is where she should stay.
Obviously, I will fight this case through the county council. Is there any way in which we can, in the unfortunate and unexpected circumstance of the sudden death of a named carer, ensure that such an event does not trigger a change to the underlying entitlement to service that the service user had before? Perhaps that is an unfortunate case and I will get a good resolution, but I ask the Minister to consider the context of it. Clearly, Devon county council now sees the death of the carer as an opportunity to reduce its commitment to a lady whom it is paying for out of area.
Ben Bradshaw
Minister of State (Regional Affairs) (South West), The Minister of State, Department of Health
As a fellow Devon MP, I fear that I am well acquainted with the shortcomings of Devon county council, as is the hon. Lady. I am not in a position now to answer for the exact legality of the situation that she describes, but I will endeavour to do so in some other form. It would be for the Care Quality Commission to decide how long a surrogate would have responsibility for registration, rather than for it to be set in stone in legislation.
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.
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.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
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
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.
