Health Bill [HL]

I am sorry if I did not touch on the issues raised by the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, in relation to the impact of this on inequalities. One of the six principles that we have adopted in the initiation of this programme is that personal health budgets should be designed to tackle inequalities and protect equality. We intend that there will be support for patients to manage their direct payments. We want to make sure that that is tailored to the different needs of patients that the noble Earl eloquently expressed, particularly those who are less well served by existing services. With appropriate services, personal health budgets and whatever support we put around patients will be tremendously powerful tools. For example, if we go back and look at the evidence based on choice, the areas that have the greatest deprivation in equality actually exercise the most choice. That is what we need to encourage: empowering patients to tackle some of the inequalities to which the noble Earl referred.