NHS Redress Bill [Lords]

I can certainly give my hon. Friend that assurance. In fact, we envisage that the Legal Services Commission, which holds its own list of appropriate clinical negligence lawyers for legal aid purposes, will fulfil that function. In addition to the role of the Healthcare Commission, clause 15 enables the independent health service ombudsman to investigate complaints about any maladministration of the redress scheme. Ann Abraham, the ombudsman, has welcomed the fact that the scheme’s operation will fall clearly within her jurisdiction. She believes that the fact that an independent review of complaints about the scheme will be available will give reassurance to those using the scheme, to complainants and to the NHS bodies involved. May I revert to a point made earlier by the hon. Member for Buckingham (John Bercow), who has since left the Chamber? I should like to correct an answer that I gave about the negative procedure. The first regulation establishing the scheme under the Bill will, in fact, be subject to the affirmative procedure. I hope that that will reassure the hon. Gentleman, and I shall make a point of drawing it to his attention. There were disagreements on clause 12 in the other place. Clearly, they will follow us into Committee as well as into this debate. Despite those disagreements, I believe that the Bill has been improved by more than 10 hours of discussion in another place. Following those debates, we have already made other amendments to the Bill as originally published. In clause 3, we put the offer of an apology into the Bill and we prevent caps on individual heads of damage—for instance, loss of earnings. That makes it much clearer that payments received under the redress scheme will be in line with those made through the courts. We have strengthened clause 8 to provide that legal advice must be available on the offer of redress and a settlement agreement.