Health Bill [HL]

I thank all noble Lords who contributed to this short debate. I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, that although the inclusion of the CQC may look incidental, it was entirely deliberate on our part. For the reasons she outlined, it makes sense for the regulator to be there. I take entirely the Minister’s point about the burden of consultation. In the NHS and in social care we tend to swim in a sea of consultation, and, frankly, there are only so many sandwiches that can be eaten in the course of developing good policy. If he is suggesting that there should be only one opportunity to be involved in consultation then, on balance, my guess would be that most people would want to be consulted on the handbook, not the constitution. Not only is that when the detail of how the principle is to be implemented in the NHS is established, it is also the point at which people reading the documents get the sense of which principles are the really important ones and how all the different principles will interact in practice. I have not spoken to anyone about this, but I know that many external organisations are very interested, and I would like to consult them on it. But that is my initial reaction to the Minister’s comments. I am very pleased that he has agreed that there is a degree of feeling about the issue. I am happy to look further at it and perhaps come back to it at a later stage. I thank the noble Earl, Lord Howe, for his support. I do not want a never-ending list of people to be involved, but I do think that there is a case for this list, and possibly only this list, of people to be involved. I think it brings some welcome clarity. So, with the Minister’s assurances that he will not knock it out of court completely, I am very happy to beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 27 withdrawn. Amendments 28 and 29 not moved. Clause 4 agreed. Clause 5: Report on effect of NHS Constitution Amendments 30 to 32 not moved. Clause 5 agreed.