Health Bill

Amendments Nos. 83 to 85 seek to amend Clause 33 so that the Secretary of State may set charges only by means of an order rather than by directions to primary care trusts. The noble Earl has said that the reason for the amendments is to give Parliament the opportunity to scrutinise the level of any fees the Secretary of State may decide to set. While the Committee on Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform did indeed comment on the lack of parliamentary scrutiny on the setting of these fees, it made no recommendations. As I said in my response to the Select Committee, the Government have made it clear that we will not set fees which are unreasonable or disproportionate to our objectives of defraying NHS costs in processing such applications and deterring those simply entering speculative bids or wasting NHS time. We anticipate that these fees may alter regularly, and at least annually. We therefore consider it appropriate for fees under Clause 33 to be set out in directions, as they offer a more responsive vehicle than orders or regulations and, if I may say so, are less bureaucratic to administer. I want to assure noble Lords that new Section 42A(3) as set out in Clause 33 places a duty on the Secretary of State to set fees only after consultation with those representing the NHS and pharmaceutical contractors. We therefore consider that there will be proper consultation before directions are made, but we continue to believe that directions are the most appropriate vehicle for this particular purpose. On a drafting point, the noble Earl’s amendments also seek to omit to change the second reference to ““directions”” in new Section 42A(1) and (3)(b). Furthermore, subsection (4) would cease to be necessary if an order rather than directions was used as orders have to be published anyway by virtue of the Statutory Instruments Act 1946. I thought I ought to draw this to his attention, but I am not sure that it has been altogether wise to do so in case he now seeks to produce a further amendment which is not technically defective. However, in the spirit of helpfulness that have I tried to convey to the Committee, I draw the noble Earl’s attention to the point.