Health Bill [HL]

Normally I find myself supporting many of the amendments moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, but I have a little difficulty with this one. I think that these reports will, in general, be boring and will not deal with the meat. Generally, reports which go before Parliament are left on the shelves in the Vote Office of the House of Commons, and I cannot see that they are of great interest. Those of interest are the reports which get into the hands of constituency Members of Parliament because they will go through them with a fine toothcomb to see what is going on in their local trusts and with their local providers. They will want to know where issues of controversy and difficulty are within those provider organisations, and they will want to concentrate on them. In the event that one of these quality reports had come my way when I was in the House of Commons, I will tell noble Lords what I would have done with it. I would have gone into my office, we would have pored over it, and we would probably have gone to meet the chairman of the trust or a representative of the local provider. In current conditions, we probably would have sought a meeting with the chairman of the county council scrutiny committee to see whether it wanted to follow up any material that was provided in the report. Finally, in the event that there was something that clearly had wider implications than just the local area, I would have gone the chairman of the social services and health Select Committee in the House of Commons and asked him whether he intended to hold an inquiry. In the event that he said no, I would have lobbied within that Select Committee to ensure that the idea of an inquiry was raised within the membership of the committee. Furthermore, in the event that the report had showed up areas of concern that arose out of the use of public resources and money, I would probably have rung up the National Audit Office to speak to the Comptroller and Auditor-General and asked him whether he intended to carry out an inquiry into the wider implications of that particular area of the report, which might be mirrored in the reports for other providers in other parts of the country. The National Audit Office, in the event that it carried out a report, would have reported to the Public Accounts Committee, which would have followed that up. I think that is a far better way of dealing with these matters than to have a report to Parliament which will be general and which, in my view, will have no effect whatever on what happens in these matters. I am sorry to say this to the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, because I agree with so much of what she says.