Nursing and Midwifery (Amendment) Order 2008

rose to move, that the draft order laid before the House on 22 April be approved. The noble Baroness said: My Lords, this draft order is the first in a planned series of affirmative resolution orders that will be brought before this House as part of the implementation of the White Paper Trust, Assurance and Safety. The aim of the reforms is to enhance public confidence in the ability of the healthcare regulatory bodies such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council to protect the public interest and deal with poor professional standards. Public concern has been highlighted by a number of high-profile cases, such as those involving Dr Shipman and the nurse Beverly Allitt. Those cases led to a number of detailed inquiries—including the Shipman inquiry led by Dame Janet Smith—that have made a number of far-reaching recommendations. The order is part of the process of implementing those recommendations. It makes various amendments to the framework legislation for the regulation of nurses and midwives—the Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001. The main changes relate to the governance arrangements of the NMC. They include moving the NMC from a partially elected to a fully appointed council, in response to the recommendation from Dame Janet Smith that professional interests should not unduly influence council members. Members are to be appointed by the independent Appointments Commission against specified skills and competencies. There will be provision for a separate constitution order to specify the numbers of lay and professional members and their terms of office, and there will be provisions with respect to the suspension and removal of members. We expect that the NMC will have seven registrant and seven lay members, making it smaller, more board-like and more strategy-focused. There will be changes to the provisions relating to the NMC’s committee structure to make them less prescriptive. The changes were originally included in the Health Care and Associated Professions (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order, which was published for consultation on 22 November last year. In its response to that consultation, the NMC raised concerns about the timescale for making the changes, in particular about the difficulties for it if it needed to hold elections to its council in 2008. Each year, a quarter of the elected representatives on the council come up for re-election. The NMC asked if its provisions in the draft order could be brought forward in a separate order in time to avoid this summer’s elections, hence this order standing separately from the other orders, which are still to come. The Government have similarly responded to requests to avoid elections made last year by the General Medical Council and the General Dental Council. We recognise that the cost and disruption of holding an election for council members who will serve at most one year of a four-year term would not be sensible. The order therefore includes provisions to cancel the elections that were due this year, which were for the elected representatives on the council in the English national constituency. The order also makes a number of other miscellaneous amendments. Those worth noting in particular include the following. For the first time, the council’s annual report will have to include a description of the arrangements that the council has put in place to ensure that it adheres to good practice in relation to equality and diversity. The NMC will be able to give enhanced prescribing rights to more of its registrants in an emergency such as pandemic flu. The NMC will be able to strike off registrants who are barred from working with children or vulnerable adults when the new independent barring board is established. All those measures are supported by the NMC. I commend the order to the House. I beg to move. Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 22 April be approved. 17th Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.—(Baroness Thornton.)