My Lords, this debate has ranged widely over a number of health issues, and I realise the seriousness of the issues that have been raised. Given that I am painfully aware of the cost of a new hip, and the noble Lord, Lord Winston, is telling me cost of IVF treatment is in the same league, there are some major questions. I am also conscious, partly as a result of conversations with the noble Lord, that the United Kingdom has identified biomedical research and development as one of the core areas that we want to develop. One member of my family is heavily involved in some of that. London, Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and other places are centres of expertise, and this is therefore an important area in which aspects of economic growth are entirely relevant, but careful regulation also has to be part of it. The question of care homes has also been raised. That is another very broad area where sustainability, how far profit should be part of the process and how far we should be promoting mutuals are some other major questions.
4.45 pm
Since this is the first of three related areas, it might be helpful if I say something about the Government’s approach in this Deregulation Bill. We are following the course set out in the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006, which proposed that there would be regulations that set out the various regulatory functions that would follow. The Regulators’ Code, which comes under that Act, includes as its first principle of six:
“Regulators should carry out their activities in a way that supports those they regulate to comply and grow”.
That is very much the delicate balance that we are talking about.
In Clause 88—perhaps it would be useful if I read it out carefully—we propose:
“A person exercising a regulatory function … must … have regard to the desirability of promoting economic growth”.
It does not in any way say that economic growth should override other functions. Some regulators will regard this as a factor to be included, but not as one of the more important ones—other issues rather than economic factors will clearly matter a good deal more. It has been made very clear in the debate that, in a very large number of areas of medical and biomedical concern, the question of economic growth—let alone of commercialisation—will have to be treated either as not relevant to the subject, or as one of the factors but certainly not one of the most important ones.
May I explain where we go from here? The Government are currently consulting on which functions are to be regulated and which are out of the Bill’s scope. The HFEA was in scope in the original 2013 consultation on the growth duty; that remains the Government’s case. I recognise that part of the discussion about the HFEA here has been a criticism of the way that that body functions, rather than whether it is in scope. The Government are currently exploring whether the Professional Standards Authority has any regulatory functions. If they conclude that it does exercise a number of regulatory functions, they will then consult on including them before doing so. The regulations, when ready after extensive consultation, will come back to Parliament as an affirmative statutory instrument. I have no doubt that the concerns that have been expressed about this will be taken very fully into account in the continuing consultations.
I hope that that provides the level of assurance needed for the amendment to be withdrawn. The Government are very aware of concerns in the biomedical area. We stress that Clause 89 requires that any such order specifying regulatory functions to be included in the scope of the duty must be subject to the affirmative procedure. This is a debate that will continue. Once the Bill becomes an Act we will consider which bodies will come within its scope and for which purposes. Again, I stress that Clauses 88 to 91 follow the recommendations in the proposals by the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, and others that regulatory authorities, where appropriate, should include the consideration of economic growth in their factors to be taken into account. Again, I stress that in some cases that will be a very important part of what they should consider; in others, it will be one factor and not necessarily one of the most important.
I hope that that provides the assurance that the noble Lord seeks and that he will therefore be able to withdraw his amendment.