The Health and Care Bill is scheduled for second reading in the
House of Lords on 7 December 2021. This Lords Library briefing
focuses on how the bill changed as it went through the House of
Commons, and remaining areas that opposition parties and other
stakeholders would like to see addressed in the House of Lords.
Documents to download
The bill gives effect to policies set out as part of NHS
England’s recommendations for legislative reform following the
Long Term Plan and the Integration and Innovation white paper. It
would abolish clinical commissioning groups and replace them with
integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission hospital and other
health services. It would establish integrated care partnerships
(ICPs) to bring together ICBs and local authorities to produce an
integrated care strategy for their area. NHS England and NHS
Improvement would be merged. New powers would be given to the
secretary of state, including the power to direct NHS England, to
intervene earlier in the reconfiguration of local NHS services,
and to transfer functions between NHS bodies. The NHS would no
longer be subject to competitive tendering requirements and
enforced competition between NHS providers.
The bill contains many other measures, including: setting
mandatory information standards for data across the health and
adult social care system; establishing the Health Services Safety
Investigations Board as a statutory body; making virginity
testing an offence; and restricting the advertising of less
healthy food and drinks on television, on-demand programme
services and online.
Following a government amendment to the bill at report stage in
the House of Commons, means-tested financial support provided by
a local authority towards an individual’s personal care costs
would not count towards the new £86,000 cap on care costs. This
amendment to the bill was controversial.
Other concerns raised about the bill have centred on the level of
involvement that private healthcare companies would be able to
have in ICBs and the level of transparency in awarding contracts
under a new procurement regime. The bill has also been criticised
for introducing a major reorganisation of the NHS while it is
still dealing with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, and
for not doing enough to address staffing shortfalls in the NHS
and the social care sector. The Government sought to address some
concerns about the bill through amendments during its passage
through the House of Commons, but the Labour Party and others
argue these amendments did not go far enough.
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Documents to download
