My Lords, I apologise to the House and to the noble Lord, Lord Ribeiro, for leaping to my feet in my eagerness to respond.
I listened very carefully to the noble Earl and to the noble Lord, Lord Ribeiro, both of whom were able to reassure me to an extent about the meaning of the term “registered persons” and to whom that refers, so I am happy about that. Incidentally, I am also happy that there should be a duty that the Secretary of State “must” put forward regulations.
However, the question remains, is legislation to stop avoidable harm a feasible proposition? I remain unhappy about the possibility that this will result in excessive caution, lack of will to innovate in clinical practice and the potential to drive underground the bad behaviour of some doctors who may not wish to admit to it. Therefore, there is still some worry there.
I am particularly concerned after having spent some time going through that rather weighty document, the CQC’s guidance notes, which are particularly heavy-handed. They are extremely clear and dogmatic, and rather light on how to achieve what it wants to do. They seem designed to inhibit any innovative practice, and I fear that the document itself, following on from this legislation, will be unacceptable to people in the field.
I take the point, incidentally, about not having training, education and supervision in the Bill, even though I know that that is critical to the way in which this whole programme—what we all want—can be delivered. That is entirely dependent at the local level on people who will oversee and ensure high standards of care in their institutions. Therefore, clearly this is an important element which comes out in the CQC guidance, but not as strongly as one would wish. I noted that the noble Earl said that he would take away the possibility of looking at the CQC guidance—I am not sure whether I understood that correctly, but I hope that that is the case.
For the moment, as I have expressed, I am still somewhat unhappy about the nature of this bit of the legislation. I will ponder further on what has said. I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.