Autism Bill

Just for a bit of clarity, let me point out that, in Committee, the Minister of State, Department of Health, the hon. Member for Corby (Phil Hope), explained that this is handled through the contracting system. He said:""Yes. The Bill does not apply to foundation trusts for the reasons that I have just given—wider policy and so on—but if a PCT is contracting with a foundation trust, as I said earlier, the obligation of the PCT as an NHS body to ensure that it is carrying out its statutory duties is, therefore, handled through the contracting process. I emphasise that the NHS foundation trusts have more autonomy in the system, which is why the Bill cannot directly apply to them in the way that it may apply to other NHS bodies."––[Official Report, Autism Public Bill Committee, 13 May 2009; c. 38.]" I hope that that clarifies the point.