NHS Redress Bill [Lords]

I want to make a little more progress. I will give way to the hon. Gentleman in due course, if that is okay. My hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington spoke well, and I appreciate the work that he does in his role as patron of AvMA—Action against Medical Accidents. I appreciate the work of that organisation, and his welcome for the Bill. He made the interesting point that the vast majority of cases had already been rigorously investigated by the NHS before going on to be unsuccessfully defended. That underlines the point that we need a different way of doing things, and that the system needs to be able to react differently to the handling of complaints. So my hon. Friend made an important point, but the conclusion that I draw from it is different from his. The hon. Member for Romsey (Sandra Gidley) placed particular emphasis on the lack of provision for primary care in the Bill. However, as the Secretary of State explained earlier, primary care is governed by an entirely different set of arrangements. The NHS Litigation Authority does not have responsibility for the provision of primary care. It is possible that people might in future seek to extend the ambit of the Bill, but that is not on the agenda at the moment. It is important that we put in place a scheme that works for hospital care—secondary care. The arrangements that already cover patients and provide protection to them in the primary care setting—the professional indemnity that primary care practitioners have—will continue to be the way that their claims can be met. Of course, at that level, claims tend to be smaller than those in the secondary setting.