Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Bill

I distinctly remember insisting over and over again during the debates on the whole question of Mid Staffordshire that were taking place until the last general election that it was the Secretary of State who had to take the final responsibility for these matters, and that the duties imposed on him and the functions that he had to perform had ultimately to be his and must not be transferred to some other agency, however worthy it might be and however hard it might work to achieve objectives which, as we now know, were not being complied with satisfactorily, but which are being complied with satisfactorily now, under the Care Quality Commission. The argument that my hon. Friend is advancing comes straight from the history of the experience of Mid Staffordshire, and there is no one better to put the case than him.