Health and Social Care Bill

Baroness Masham of Ilton Excerpts

Monday 13th February 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Masham of Ilton]

My Lords, may I ask the mover of the amendment whether infection control will be one of these subjects, as tuberculosis is such a problem for homeless people, and I hear that chicken flu is again occurring in China? Who will be in charge of that?

[Lord Beecham]

I would be loath to give a definitive answer, not even having the advantage of officials in the Box to support me on this matter. However, I would have thought that infectious diseases are more appropriately a matter for the director of public health at local level. Presumably, at national level the Chief Medical Officer would have overall responsibility. However, the noble Baroness is right to imply that there is a connection with other functions and services where environmental health could contribute. I suppose that overcrowding would be an example of that. I take it that that is what she is referring to in this context. It is precisely in that sort of area that environmental health officers and others would have a statutory responsibility. There is no direct relationship potentially between, for example, a chief environmental health officer and infectious disease, but it would be sensible to have somebody with responsibility and oversight of environmental health issues of the kind that we are discussing working alongside the Chief Medical Officer. Water quality could in certain circumstances be another example of these issues. That discipline should be at the table, as it were, in a sufficiently authoritative way to contribute to dealing with issues of that kind and, we hope, preventing them.