Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 98:"Page 45, line 23, leave out ““member of the public”” and insert ““person to whom it is not necessary to disclose the information for those purposes””" The noble Earl said: Amendment No. 98 picks up a small point in relation to the confidentiality accorded to personal records in the context of counter-fraud proceedings in court. The duty in subsection (3) is expressed as follows:"““Any person who, in accordance with section 49(3), discloses the information for the purposes of any proceedings must take such measures as are necessary to ensure that the information is not disclosed to any member of the public except in accordance with an order of the court””." I wish to flag up the phrase ““member of the public””. The point is surely not that personal information should not be disclosed to a member of the public, but that it should not be disclosed to anyone who does not need to know it for the purposes of court proceedings. It is not clear who would be included in the scope of ““member of the public””. Someone working for the NHS is not exactly a member of the public, but he or she might have no need to know personal information. If what is meant here is a person not engaged in the case, I wonder whether there is not a better way to express that. I beg to move.