NHS Redress Bill [Lords]

I will make a little more progress. I would rather hear from the Minister why it is impossible to imagine setting up a body to oversee these matters and ensure that there is independence. We are in an invidious position: the Government, who started out with the best intentions, are suggesting that the trust should be the investigator, the defendant and, to an extent, the jury. The Minister made it clear that there is a truly alarming additional element. Although he says—and I welcome it—that in nearly all cases the report into an incident will be made available to the patient concerned, unfortunately there are no guarantees on how often that would happen. The trust at fault could investigate itself, then refuse to present the report to the patient who has been wronged. When the Minister goes to sleep tonight, he must accept, in all good conscience, that he is a long way from the position that he wanted to secure when he first sought to provide a fairer system of justice for patients who have been wronged.