Health Bill [HL]

I thank noble Lords very much for their contributions. Perhaps I may reply to the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, based on my understanding of the handbook. It is a document for patients and staff. I would like to call it a guide, and she will understand my aversion to using the word ““guidance”” in this context. It is also a snapshot in time of good practice underpinned by the current status of the law. That will change, but it will change at different points. Thinking back over recent years, I would say that the passage of the Mental Capacity Act brought about a fundamental change. Had there been a constitution and handbook at that time, that legislation would have changed them in a major way, as any pre-existing documents would not have made sense. That would have been less so in the case of other legislation. I do not imagine that the changes brought about by the Mental Capacity Act would have halted just because this handbook or this constitution had not been updated. That was what I was trying to get at. I am not talking about technical revisions; I am talking about a review. Therefore, we are talking about the bringing together of good practice, legal developments, patient experience and developments in clinical practice, and putting them all together. It is possible to achieve a meaningful assessment of that only if you make that assessment over time. I say in response to the noble Lord, Lord Darzi, that three years is not even the length of a normal Parliament, never mind being long enough to monitor the effect of major policy changes. My amendments do not require that a review should take place only every five years, they say within five years. If there were an overwhelming case to do it at an earlier point, the Government would have the flexibility to do it. I remain less than convinced about the need to do this within three years. I am somewhat sceptical about the degree to which the documents will change over a three-year period; it would be beneficial to take a slightly longer view. For the moment I shall not press the matter, but I hope I have convinced the noble Lord to think again before he dismisses it completely. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 26 withdrawn.