Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend makes a very important point, because in an era of transparency we depend on honesty from the people supplying the information being used. It is not always possible independently to audit every single piece of information. What we have said today is that deliberately supplying false or misleading information will be a criminal offence, which is a much tougher sanction than anything else we are saying today. We think that the most important thing is to establish a culture in which people tell the truth and speak out if there is a problem, because then something can be done about it.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

There is a great deal to welcome in the Secretary of State’s statement, not least with regard to transparency and complaints. I welcome in particular the comments on staffing, although, obviously, we used to have more nurses than we have now. Will the Secretary of State look at the vetting and barring service, because my understanding is that use of the service and referrals to it have been declining over the past couple of years?

[Mr Hunt]

I have concerns about how much that service is used. My particular concern is not so much whether employers are checking before they employ someone, but whether they are informing the service that an employee should be referred to it for delivering inappropriate care. That is something that we will look at.