Health and Care Bill Third Reading 4.19pm Clause 189: Commencement
Amendment 1 Moved by Baroness Thornton 1: Clause 189, page 152,
line 3, leave out subsection (8) Member’s explanatory statement
This is a technical amendment necessary to remove a defective
reference to a non-existent Clause (Cap on care costs for charging
purposes), following its removal at Report stage. Baroness Thornton
(Lab) On behalf of my noble friend Lady...Request free trial
Health and Care Bill
Third Reading
4.19pm
Clause 189: Commencement
Amendment 1
Moved by
1: Clause 189, page 152, line 3, leave out subsection (8)
Member’s explanatory statement
This is a technical amendment necessary to remove a defective
reference to a non-existent Clause (Cap on care costs for
charging purposes), following its removal at Report stage.
(Lab)
On behalf of my noble friend Lady Wheeler, I will move Amendment
1 and speak to Amendment 2, which are grouped together. This
should not take very long, as we speed the Bill on its way to the
Commons.
I just want to say one thing: we entered lockdown two years ago
today, and I stood here for the next two days, helping to put
through the emergency legislation. Some 186,000 deaths later, we
are not finished yet. Now is not the time to discuss this, but I
just note that that is what happened. I can hear an alarm—I thank
the noble Earl for turning it off. I thought that it was mine for
a moment, but that is not the noise mine makes.
Amendment 1 is a technical amendment—I thank the Public Bill
Office for sorting us all out on this—necessary to remove a
defective reference to a non-existent clause, “Cap on care costs
for charging purposes”, following its removal on Report.
Amendment 2 leaves out Schedule 6. This is also a technical
amendment, necessary to remove Schedule 6, “Intervention powers
over the reconfiguration of NHS services”. It was previously
introduced by Clause 40 of the Bill as introduced,
“Reconfiguration of services: intervention powers”; again, this
was removed on Report. I beg to move Amendment 1.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health
and Social Care () (Con)
My Lords, the Government will not oppose the minor and technical
amendments tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Wheeler and Lady
Thornton. We respect the fact that both amendments are necessary
to reflect, and are consequential on, the removal of the care-cap
metering clause and the reconfigurations clause, respectively,
even though the Government are disappointed that noble Lords
chose to remove these clauses from the Bill.
Amendment 1 agreed.
Schedule 6: Intervention powers over the reconfiguration of NHS
services
Amendment 2
Moved by
2: Schedule 6, leave out Schedule 6
Member’s explanatory statement
This is a technical amendment necessary to remove Schedule 6
(Intervention powers over the reconfiguration of NHS services).
It was previously introduced by Clause 40 (Reconfiguration of
services: intervention powers), which was removed at Report
stage.
Amendment 2 agreed.
The Deputy Speaker () (Con)
The Question is that the Bill do now pass. As many as are of that
opinion will say, “Content”—
(Con)
I think that noble Lords may want to make a few remarks before we
reach the Question.
(Con)
Is that me?
(Con)
Yes.
4.22pm
Motion
Moved by
That the Bill do now pass.
(Con)
As noble Lords know, I am still learning. I will take a moment to
mark the end of the Bill’s passage through your Lordships’ House.
Its size reflects the Government’s ambitious agenda for change
and the NHS’s requests to help to deliver this change. The Bill
intends to strip out needless bureaucracy, improve accountability
and enhance integration, and it will form the bedrock for the NHS
to build on in years to come.
I will express some words of gratitude. In many ways, the many
meetings, the debates and even the late nights during the passage
of the Bill have, I believe, shown this House at its
best—informed, collaborative and considered. I am grateful to all
noble Lords for their intense scrutiny over the nine days of
Committee and four days of Report.
I pay tribute to the willingness of noble Lords, right across the
House, on all Benches, to engage with me and my officials to find
ways to improve the Bill. As well as being grateful to the Labour
and Liberal Democrat Front Benches for at times challenging us
and at other times agreeing and co-operating, I thank a number of
Cross-Bench Peers, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Finlay of
Llandaff, Lady Watkins of Tavistock and Lady Hollins, and the
noble Lords, and Lord
Patel—who sends his apologies—for their always constructive
contributions. I should perhaps also thank noble Lords on the
Benches behind me and reflect that the challenge was sometimes
from them.
As a relatively new Minister, thrown in at the deep end—your
Lordships can see how new I still am from my asking, “Am I on
yet?”—I also thank my colleagues on the Government Benches, who
have assisted, advised and, I have to admit, consoled me at times
throughout the passage of the Bill. I pay tribute to the kind
support and advice of my noble friends Lord Howe, Lady Penn and
Lady Chisholm of Owlpen.
I also put on record my thanks to the wide range of stakeholders
which have engaged with me and many noble Lords, including the
NHS Confederation, NHS Providers, the King’s Fund, the Nuffield
Trust, the Health Foundation, the Academy of Medical Royal
Colleges and the Local Government Association, for their
sustained and constructive engagement over several years. I am
sure that noble Lords will agree that the Bill is better for all
their work.
It would be remiss of me not to pay tribute to the work of
colleagues across the NHS, government and the devolved
Administrations, who have worked so hard behind the scenes. In
particular, I thank my fantastic Bill team and the departmental
policy teams supporting them, all of whom have been assiduous,
helpful and uncomplaining at all times, despite very long hours.
Perhaps I should give a special shout-out to 10 month-old Teddy
Povey, son of the Bill team manager. You say that you are getting
old when the policemen look younger, but I must say that I felt
very old on seeing that the policy officials are getting younger.
I pay a special tribute there, on his early introduction to
politics.
I thank officials across government, including the Department for
Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Education, the
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the
Ministry of Justice, the Cabinet Office and the Foreign,
Commonwealth and Development Office. That shows the sort of
cross-government dimension to this Bill.
There is no doubt that your Lordships have improved the Bill. I
hope that noble Lords across the Chamber will recognise that the
Government have listened, considered and responded positively to
suggestions where we were able to. However, I also recognise that
there are some areas still to be resolved and where, to use my
oft-used phrase one more time, we were unable to close the gap
between our positions, including on social care, workforce
planning and reconfigurations, on which the House of Commons will
want to make its voice heard—and to which we may return in
debate. But the areas of disagreement should not overshadow the
improvement that all noble Lords have made to the Bill. Together,
as a House, we have banned hymenoplasty; introduced a power to
create a licensing regime for non-surgical cosmetic procedures;
extended the gamete and embryo storage limits; made important
commitments to safeguarding children; and strengthened the NHS’s
commitment to net zero. On a subject close to my heart and that
of my right honourable friend the Secretary of State, we have
included specific references to tackling inequalities.
We send to the other place a Health and Care Bill that is
improved with its three underpinning principles reinforced:
embedding integration, cutting bureaucracy and boosting
accountability. I beg to move.
(Lab)
My Lords, I was rather hoping that we would do one of these. I
agree with the Minister that we have improved the Bill; it is a
much-improved Bill that we are sending back to the Commons, and I
hope that they have the good sense to accept all the wise
amendments that this House has made.
I also say to the noble Lord, , that this is his first Bill,
and it has been a baptism of fire for him. It is a very large
Bill to cut your teeth on. I think that he has had a bit of a
masterclass on legislation and legislative processes, but I
compliment him on how he has risen to the occasion and thank the
whole ministerial team, including the noble Earl and the noble
Baroness, Lady Penn; I was about to call her Baroness Jo-Jo,
sorry. I also observe that this is a three-baby Bill. The leader
of the Bill team and the noble Baroness, Lady Penn, have had
babies, and our adviser who started out on the Bill, Rhian, has
also had a baby. That is probably quite unusual in your
Lordships’ House.
I say thank you, of course, to my wonderful colleagues, my noble
friends Lady Wheeler and Lady Merron, and also to the Labour team
behind me, particularly my noble friend Lord Hunt, who has been
especially active on the Bill—and very welcome that has been,
too. We have worked very well across the House, and we have been
very pleased to work with the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, as
well as the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, at a distance, and with
many colleagues on the Cross Benches. If I start listing them, I
know that I shall forget someone, but I need to mention the noble
Lord, . He has not been with us for as
much of the Bill as he would have liked, but of course his wisdom
has been with us all the way through the Bill.
We are sending the Bill back to the other place, and I suspect
that we are all going to be busy when it starts pinging and
ponging back.
(LD)
My Lords, this Bill is of great significance to the NHS, care
services and, in particular, patients and residents in the care
system. As the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, and the Minister
have said, it has been improved by your Lordships’ usual
scrutiny.
I am very grateful to the noble Lord, , and the other two Ministers
working on the Bill. By my calculations, the Government have
given us either changes or reassurances on 13 different areas in
this Bill. It certainly shows that the ministerial team and the
Bill team—to which I am also grateful—have been listening. They
have devoted an enormous amount of time to hearing our concerns
and responding to them. I thank them for that.
4.30pm
This Bill has been a model of how people can work across parties
in this House. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady
Thornton, and her team for the way that we have been able to
collaborate on issues on which we agree, and indeed to the
Cross-Benchers, many of whom have enormous expertise in health
issues and have helped us all to understand the significance of
the issues that we have been discussing. It has really been a
model of how we can work together, and I am most grateful for
that.
I am particularly grateful to the wonderful team behind me and my
noble friend Lady Brinton, who unfortunately has to participate
virtually. When the Chief Whip asked me to be the Front-Bench
anchorwoman on this Bill, because my noble friend, our
spokesperson, has to participate virtually, I said that I would
do it as long as I could put a team together. Well, my colleagues
have stepped up magnificently and I am most grateful to them; I
could not have done it without them. In particular, my noble
friend Lady Brinton, with her tremendous knowledge and
conscientious scrutiny of this Bill, has been wonderful.
As we now unhook the hawsers, put the sails up and send this Bill
sailing down the Corridor to the other end, I hope I will be
forgiven for suggesting that I hope we do not see too much of it
coming back.
(Lab)
My Lords, I hate myself for this, but I forgot two people. Half
way through the Bill, we acquired a new advisor, Liz Cronin, who
has done an excellent job, and there is Richard Bourne, who has
been sat by my side, right through the Lansley Bill and this one.
They have my thanks.
(CB)
From these Benches, I very briefly thank the Minister, the noble
Baroness, Lady Penn, the noble Earl, Lord Howe, the whole Bill
team and all the officials who have worked with them for the way
that they have listened—repeatedly listened—as we made our points
over and again and as they sought sometimes to try to understand
what we were trying to get across and why. I also thank everyone
across the House, on all the Opposition Benches, the Cross
Benches and the Government Benches, who have worked with us as
Cross-Benchers in a very collaborative way and made their own
offices available for background support to all of us.
I echo the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton: this Bill
leaves us better. It has been a genuine pleasure to work on it.
Some of us have worked on previous Bills, and I have to say that
this was a more enjoyable and rewarding experience because the
dialogue involved a better interchange at many points.
We have made some points of great significance, one of which was
over palliative care, which has been dear to my heart. Palliative
care has come of age. I think the House will be pleased to know
that, on Friday morning, the annual meeting of the Association
for Palliative Medicine has a specific session dedicated to
understanding the changes and what it now needs to do in the
light of those. The word goes fast from here, and that is very
welcome.
I hope that I have not forgotten anybody in my thanks, which are
open and sincerely expressed.
(GP)
My Lords, I rise very briefly, with the Green group having made
quite a large contribution—certainly in hours—to this Bill.
This House has improved the Bill, but I feel I need to say that I
have received in the last few days a significant number of
emails. They are not part of a co-ordinated campaign; they are
cries from the heart, many from long-term NHS campaigners who I
have known for a long while. I quote just one of these, which
says that:
“The Bill is still not in the interests of the public or indeed
of the NHS itself as a comprehensive, universal public
service”.
That is an expression of feeling that I am hearing very strongly.
I hope that the Minister will listen to that and understand that
there are very grave concerns out there among the public about
the direction of the NHS.
The improvements that we have at least delivered, as other noble
Lords have said, should stay, but the Government really need to
safeguard this universal public service.
4.34pm
Bill passed and returned to the Commons with amendments.
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