rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 26 April be approved [25th Report from the Joint Committee].
The noble Lord said: My Lords, this order for pre-consolidation is made under Sections 36 and 38 of the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002. Those provisions enable the Secretary of State to make by order amendments to legislation relating to the health service in England and Wales which facilitate, or are otherwise desirable in connection with, the consolidation of NHS law.
The order allows minor technical changes to the law prior to its consolidation. It affects the National Health Service Act 1977 and other health service legislation. The 1977 Act itself consolidated prior health legislation. There followed numerous statutory changes that have made applying the law a more complex task which calls for consolidation. For example, my noble friend Lord Hunt of Kings Heath pointed out in 2002 that the 1977 Act had been amended by 57 further statutes.
The department intends to introduce three Bills in June to consolidate NHS law in England and Wales: the National Health Service Bill (England), the National Health Service Bill (Wales) and the National Health Service (Consequential Provisions) Bill. The three Bills have been prepared by the Law Commission, and represent many years’ hard work by the draftsmen at the commission. I am extremely grateful for their work.
I am very pleased that the parliamentary stages are underway, with this pre-consolidation order being the first stage of the process. The provisions of the pre-consolidation order are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Furthermore, we have had nothing but supportive feedback from stakeholders within our 12-week consultation period. The order makes minor amendments to the National Health Service Act and other health service legislation. The amendments can be broadly categorised as: desirable to clarify the legislation or remove an element of ambiguity from it; necessary to remedy missed consequential provisions; incorporating modifications; dealing with local health boards in Wales; removing certain requirements for Treasury consent before certain payments can be made; remunerating practitioners; and repealing provisions which are either spent or are unnecessary.
The order is not therefore the most exciting of reads. None the less, I will try and give a flavour of the order. The Explanatory Memorandum gives a detailed explanation of each of the provisions in Schedule 1. I hope this has been of assistance. The order enables consolidation to remove ambiguity. One example of this is Schedule 1(2), which amends Section 3 of the National Health Service Act 1977. In a legal dispute of July last year, the Court of Appeal, on intervention by the Department of Health, reversed a court decision to narrowly construe the term ““facilities.”” The order amends Section 3 to more clearly reflect the finding of the court in that case.
The order also aims to correct a number of missed consequential amendments. The first example concerns the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 and the Health and Social Care Act 2003. A large part of the order incorporates provisions in relation to local pharmaceutical services. The National Health Service Local Pharmaceutical Services Regulations 2006 recently made a number of modifications to the 1977 Act. The order incorporates these modifications into the 1977 Act, thereby making the legislation more accessible.
This brings me to the amendments necessary because of the powers of the National Assembly for Wales. The Assembly has directed local health boards to exercise some of its functions that were transferred to the Assembly on the abolition of health authorities in Wales in April 2003. The consolidation reflects the effect of these functions regulations by substituting references to local health boards for references to health authorities in all relevant sections under the 1977 Act. The order clarifies these arrangements accordingly. Another group of amendments concerns Treasury consent provisions. The order removes the requirement for Treasury consent for certain payments which may be made by the Secretary of State. This is in line with Treasury policy that such consent should be reviewed and repealed where appropriate. The Treasury has agreed these amendments.
I should make special reference to the largest amendment. Schedule 1(19) inserts Sections 43A and 43B into the 1977 Act. The consolidation will be more comprehensible if it is possible to reproduce these sections in a simple form, and this amendment, together with the consequential repeals, will enable this. Furthermore, by amending other legislation, the order will provide for a less complex consolidation exercise. For example, the Ministry of Health Act 1919 is spent and is therefore repealed. This avoids the need to reproduce a spent enactment in the consolidation. In summary, the order is an important step in the consolidation of our NHS legislation. I beg to move.
Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 26 April be approved [25th Report from the Joint Committee.]—(Lord Warner.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
National Health Service (Pre-consolidation Amendments) Order 2006
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Warner
(Labour)
in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 16 May 2006.
It occurred during Debates on delegated legislation on National Health Service (Pre-consolidation Amendments) Order 2006.
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2005-06
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