Health Bill

My Lords, I, too, thank the Minister for introducing the Bill. I strongly support it and, unusually, congratulate the Government, particularly on bringing in comprehensive legislation prohibiting smoking in all enclosed public places. I declare an interest: I am vice-president of the charity QUIT, which has helped thousands of people to give up smoking. Today’s legislation will help hundreds of thousands more to give up and will go a long way towards meeting government targets for reducing the incidence of smokers in the population. I agree with the scientific evidence cited by the noble Baronesses, Lady Cumberlege, Lady Rendell and Lady O’Cathain. Anybody who does not agree with the overwhelming scientific evidence of the damaging effects of second-hand smoke has his head in the sand or is confused by facts. I am pleased that the Bill was amended in the other place to remove the opportunity to exclude private membership clubs and any licensed premises. All public places should be smoke-free, including all areas of the Palace of Westminster. I would go further: Parliament should set an example, as have hospitals, and ban smoking in all parts of the Palace of Westminster, including offices. I support these measures. Part 2 relates to the prevention and control of healthcare-acquired infections. I welcome and support this part of the Bill as well. Again, I declare an interest. I am chairman of the National Patient Safety Agency, an organisation that has done a considerable amount, particularly with its ““clean your hands”” campaign, to help to reduce healthcare-related infections, as the Minister is aware. I have some questions about the scope of the code of practice, which others have mentioned. The code is not available to us now, but it would have been better to have had it to enable us to comment on it when debating the Bill. I hope that the Minister will comment on that and that we will have the opportunity in Committee to probe further on the scope of the code of practice on healthcare-acquired infections. I also have concerns about the definition of healthcare-associated infections. The definition in the Bill refers to any infection which an individual ““may be”” exposed to. The definition used by the Health Protection Agency is much better and does not include the words ““may be””. Again, we will have an opportunity to explore this further in Committee. I support Clause 15 on the functions of the Healthcare Commission in relation to the code of practice, as the body which ensures compliance with the code. There are, however, issues to be discussed with regard to improvement notices—for example, the length of the specified period which an organisation must meet to comply with the notice, the redress open to the Secretary of State if the organisation does not comply, and so on. What are the likely effects of the code of practice on the training of health professionals, and will it require more resources to implement them? Part 3 of the Bill refers to drugs, medicines and pharmacies. This part of the Bill is in response to the fourth report of the Shipman inquiry and relates to the safe management and audit of controlled drugs. It is right that an accountable officer should be responsible for ensuring the safe use of controlled drugs and for best-practice guidance on the handling of controlled drugs. We have examples reported to us by the National Patient Safety Agency in relation to the harmful effect of some controlled drugs, which will soon be out as an alert to the service. As I said in the beginning, I welcome the Bill. Apart from some areas requiring further clarification, I shall support it. In bringing in part 1, which relates to smoke-free premises, the Government have made a greater contribution to public health and health gain than any government in decades.