Health Bill [HL]

The noble Baroness says that this is an interim measure. I argue that the interim measure is the concession on mental health trusts. My noble friend is breaching the wider principle of extending the amendment to the cap right across all National Health Service foundation trusts in the United Kingdom. I choose my words delicately, but she is making a mockery of her acceptance of the very generous offer that my noble friend made at Third Reading. I have argued repeatedly in the past that this is a sensitive matter for the Commons. In the event that these matters are to be dealt with, they should be dealt with in primary legislation in the House of Commons in a Bill that goes through all its stages in the House of Commons, not be dropped in at the last moment at the fag end of a Bill, which effectively gives the House of Commons only one opportunity to debate it. The House of Commons is being denied the right comprehensively to consider this very sensitive issue. I reject this amendment, and I hope the House does too.