Autumn Budget 2024

Baroness Wheeler Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lamont of Lerwick (Con)]

My Lords, as the first Labour Budget for 14 years, this was bound to be a very big occasion, and indeed it was: it was a bold Budget, with bold increases in taxation, bold increases in borrowing, bold increases in spending and a bold tearing-up of everything that Labour said in the general election.

As we heard from the Minister, this is all justified on the basis of the spurious £22 billion black hole. But Paul Johnson, the IFS director, said that there was no “unknown black hole”. The OBR, despite the Government trying to enlist its support, said that nothing legitimised the figure of £22 billion. It talked of an unaccounted for £9.6 billion, but how does that justify tax increases of £40 billion?

The party opposite—the Government—says it has the worst economic inheritance since the Second World War. In fact, the UK economy is recovering faster from the twin shocks of the pandemic and the energy price rises than our EU partners and all the countries in the G7 other than the United States. The financial position—the deficit—was better than the Conservative Government inherited when they came to office as a coalition.

Labour’s fiction is necessary to justify eating their words and breaking their promises, but the truth is that Labour always intended massive increases in spending but did not dare put forward the tax increases to pay for this during the election. The Chancellor promised that she would not change the fiscal rules, but she has done exactly that and changed the definition of government debt, in effect to exclude borrowing for investment from the total. This mantra of borrowing for investment, which we first got from Gordon Brown, is questionable. First, the distinction between current spending and investment is not clearcut. Some current spending has favourable long-term impacts; Ministers frequently refer to more spending for nurses as an investment, and one understands why.

Borrowing for investment is justified, so the theory goes, because it supports growth as long as the return exceeds the cost of borrowing. But this assumes that projects are well-designed and completed to time and on cost. I need highly emphasise that our record, nationally, does not need very much emphasising.

The argument for borrowing to invest might apply to power stations or infrastructure, but not all public investment yields an economic return. We welcome investment in health or education—it is a good thing in itself—but it earns an economic return only very slightly and over the very long term. If we are serious about sustainable public finances, borrowing for investment should not be accounted for outside the Government’s measure for meeting their own debt target. The truth is that this is not a Budget for growth or investment; it is simply a Budget for the public sector.

There is no ideal target for debt sustainability. What the markets are interested in is a country’s ability to service its debt. Note that, under the plans that the Government have put forward, interest payments have now risen to over £120 billion—over 3% of GDP; over 7% of public spending. The Chancellor believes massive borrowing for public investment will lead to growth, but that is not what the OBR’s forecasts show. They show that growth in the next five years will be less than it said it would be in the next five years during the last Conservative Government at the time of the Budget in March.

The OBR says that the Budget will have little positive effect until 2032 or later. The Government fought the election saying that they intended to have the fastest rate of growth in the G7; they never said they intended to have the fastest rate of growth in the G7 in 10 years’ time.

Debt remains at just under 100% of GDP at a time when the IMF has warned that, internationally, government debt is becoming a problem worldwide. The OBR has warned that UK debt is on trend to reach an unsustainable level of 270% of GDP. You may say, “That won’t happen”, but it will not happen only if we have our eye on the long term and make some very difficult decisions.

The Prime Minister a few weeks ago said that this Government were all about “wealth creation”. When I heard that, I am afraid I laughed out loud. Then he said that the Budget would be a Budget for business. It is a strange Budget for business which has a main tax increase aimed fairly and squarely at the corporate sector.

Many observers question whether the increase in national insurance contributions will raise the £25 billion forecast for it. Paul Johnson of the IFS has forecast that the Government will have to come back for more tax increases in the next couple of years. One can make the pips squeak, but our tax base is relatively narrow. The top 1% of all taxpayers paid 29% of all income tax and the top 10% paid 61%. Those individuals involved are not numerous, and so it does not require a big change in behaviour by these top earners to do huge damage to the country’s tax revenues.

The Prime Minister talks about putting “country before party”. He talked about governing for people who had not voted for him. Where is the sign of that in this Budget? It is massively divisive, it is a massive gamble and it has massive increases in spending and borrowing and a new high for taxation. If the gamble fails, the country, alas, will pay a painful price.

[Baroness Wheeler (Lab)]

My Lords, the advisory speaking time for this debate is five minutes. I urge all noble Lords to keep remarks within that limit so that the debate may finish at a reasonable time.

Medical Innovation Bill [HL]

Baroness Wheeler Excerpts

Friday 12th December 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mackay of Clashfern (Con)]

My Lords, as far as Amendment 1 is concerned, I think that the later amendment tabled by my noble friend Lord Saatchi has the same effect. Amendment 1 is very clear on the matter, and I think that it has been the law that emergency treatments are dealt with in a way that is suitable for the emergency. Accordingly, something of this sort in the Bill is an improvement.

I find Amendment 6 more difficult. As I said in Committee, “innovation” is an ordinary word in the English language, so to try to list all possible innovations seems to suggest a foreknowledge of what innovations may be introduced in the future. It requires unnecessary precision. As I said, “innovation” is a reasonably simple word and it is easy for a practitioner to carry it in their head. I venture to think that Amendment 6 would be somewhat more difficult to carry in your head. I have read it, of course, but I would find it quite difficult to repeat it now without reading it, so I will not attempt that test.

On the later amendments, it seems to me that emergency medicine is certainly not intended to be dealt with by the Bill. It is obviously intended to deal with a deliberate decision to administer a treatment into which has gone a degree of consultation and prior thought. I am therefore entirely of the view that innovation ought not to be covered by it. In so far as my noble friend Lord Saatchi’s amendment does not do that already, Amendment 1 is very acceptable so far as I am concerned.

[Baroness Wheeler (Lab)]

My Lords, as this is the first contribution from the Front Bench to the discussion of today’s amendments, perhaps I may again place on the record our support for the key principles and intent of the Bill. As we stress, Labour has always strongly supported efforts to bring innovative treatments to patients faster, and we underline the need for a major effort by government to address the barriers and bureaucracy that prevent progress being made and ensure that innovations are rapidly transcribed into practice. The noble Lord, Lord Kakkar, recently held a short debate in the Moses Room on the impact of innovation and research strategies on health improvement. It provided an excellent overview of the key issues, the progress being made, and the problems still to be addressed. We are keen to ensure that the Bill of the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, is seen in the context of this wider, bigger picture. I know that the noble Lord accepts that his Bill will be one measure in the broader landscape of what needs to be done.

Along with my noble friend Lord Turnberg, I am also grateful to the noble Lord for the efforts he has made to address the issues and concerns raised by noble Lords across the House. In Committee we underlined our broad support for the changes—the “Sir Bruce Keogh amendments”, as they are now known—which have been made to ensure patient safety and safeguarding. We also found the round-table discussions for Peers that were organised by the noble Lord following our suggestions in Committee very valuable and useful. Again, we are broadly supportive of the new amendments he has brought forward today, which are the result of the discussions, on emergency care, on the recording of key information in the notes of the patient receiving the treatment, on excluding cosmetic surgery from the scope of the Bill, and on ensuring the preservation of the existing law about clinical trials and other forms of research.

My noble friend Lord Winston continues to express strong concerns about the Bill, and his amendments are designed to add further safeguards and limitations on the scope. He fully reflects the continuing concerns that have been voiced by a number of key stakeholders and doctors, including the BMA and the Medical Practitioners’ Union, which have issued further detailed briefs warning against the possible consequences of the Bill. At my noble friend’s instigation, I have read carefully Tuesday’s Adjournment debate in the House of Commons on patient safety and medical innovation, and in particular the contributions from Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, who expressed the strong criticisms we have heard from the noble Lord and the Bill’s critics, and the contribution from the Minister for Life Sciences, George Freeman. I thought that Dr Wollaston’s contribution well reflected the issues and concerns we have heard in this House—but also that the Minister presented a pretty balanced response as to where we are today in terms of the safeguards and workability of the Bill.

For our part, we have sought to work constructively with the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, and other noble Lords to improve the Bill and to make it workable and safe for patients. The round-table discussions particularly focused on the outstanding areas of our concerns which we are discussing today. First, there is the issue of obtaining written consent from the appropriately qualified doctor in relation to the proposed treatment, which will come up in the next group. Secondly, we seek to ensure that the Bill does not impact on or affect the existing law on clinical trials and other forms of research. We are satisfied that Amendments 8 and 9, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, have the effect of reinforcing this in the Bill.

Thirdly, we desire to see a definition of “innovation” in the Bill and we have sympathy for the arguments that key areas need to be excluded from its scope, as again set out in the amendment retabled by my noble friend Lord Winston. The Department of Health has argued strongly that any definition of innovation would need to be the subject of a widespread, cross-government consultation that should include the devolved Governments. We have made a dignified retreat on our particular amendment and we accept the difficulties that would be involved at this stage in the progress of the Bill. However, my noble friend Lord Winston has made a strong case for defining innovation in respect of medical treatments and the use of drugs, and I look forward to the responses of the Minister and the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi. Like my noble friend Lord Turnberg, we think that a form of words based on that would provide a useful clarification.

On exclusions, the briefing on the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, states that he has considered attempting to define the extent and scope of the Bill, but has found it impossible to do so in a way that answers more questions than it raises. However, Amendment 10 does provide the important exclusion of cosmetic surgery that was sought by noble Lords across the House, and we welcome this. At the round table there was discussion about the possibility of the scope of the Bill referring to the regulated branches of medicine to distinguish the areas it covers. My noble friend Lord Winston makes this point in Amendment 12 in relation to excluding practitioners and health workers who are not registered with the General Medical Council or the General Dental Council.

Fourthly, I turn to the very important issue of emergency situations in the treatment of patients, which is a strong area of concern for noble Lords across the House, including my noble friends Lord Turnberg and Lord Winston, and the noble Lord, Lord Kakkar. Amendments 14 and 15 tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, address this by providing a reference to emergencies as an example of a situation in which the existing common law Bolam test would apply and a doctor might not engage in the procedures of the Bill. But if there is further clarification in respect of the issues raised by my noble friend Lord Winston, we would be grateful for that. Amendment 1 raises other issues in respect of emergency care, and again I look forward to hearing from the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, and the Minister in response.

As I have said, we have worked constructively with the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, to make the Bill safe and workable, and we believe that the amendments that were made in Committee—and that we hope will be made today—will make it a better Bill. It has strong support, but we know that key stakeholders still have major concerns. There needs to be strong commitment from the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, and the Government to address these issues and ensure that there is full consultation on the regulations, guidance and codes that will enforce its implementation. The registration of innovative treatments will be crucial, and this will be picked up by my noble friend Lord Hunt under our amendment later.

Finally, I remind the House of the four key tests of what the Bill will achieve, which were set out to the House of Commons by the Health Minister, Dr Daniel Poulter. He said that the Bill must,

“ensure it does not … put patients at risk … deter good and responsible innovation … place an undue bureaucratic burden on the National Health Service; or … expose doctors to a risk of additional liabilities”.—[Official Report, Commons, 21/7/14; col. 999W.]

Again, I would be pleased to hear from the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, and the Minister as to whether they consider that the Bill in its amended form will achieve this.

[Lord Woolf (CB)]

My Lords, I hope that I will be forgiven for not speaking before the noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, addressed the House. Unfortunately, she responded more quickly than me in getting to her feet; thus, we have this order. The progress of the Bill has been a remarkable example of this House at its very best. The Bill has been very carefully scrutinised by people who have immense knowledge of the areas covered in the Bill. That does not mean that anything said by a particular Member of the House with undoubted expertise in this area is necessarily right in this matter. As is the case with many Bills, sometimes more than one profession can be involved. I suggest that this is an example where two professions, which in the past have been guilty at times of excessive conservatism, are involved and have been loud in some of the things that they have had to say. The other profession of which I am thinking is my own; lawyers are not always celebrated for their innovative approach. They have improved from the situation of not so long ago. They are more ready to accept change—indeed, they have been forced to accept it—than they willingly would have done in the early days when I was practising.

I have been criticised in letters I have received in a way in which I perhaps am not accustomed for my involvement in the Bill sponsored by the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi. Those who have asked me to identify cases by name and reference so that they can analyse the cases and show how they do not help any particular argument might be relieved to hear me say that if they want to know where I come from, I wrote a little book called The Pursuit of Justice. I focused on the medical profession at that time because I found that its conservatism was interfering with the pursuit of justice. As far as victims were concerned, one of the most difficult areas of litigation in this country was clinical negligence cases.

Both sides in those cases were put into great difficulty because of that conservatism. On one side were the patients who often wanted the doctors to say sorry. On the other side were the doctors who felt that they could not say sorry because if they did they would be admitting liability for negligence. So the two never met—and that, I am afraid, can happen.

I listened very carefully to the graphic examples given by the noble Lord, Lord Winston, of where he thought that the Bill could be a problem. In his first example, he said that there was a difference of opinion between his anaesthetist, who did not think that an unusual and innovative form of intervention was appropriate, and the noble Lord, who thought that it was appropriate in the circumstances. Happily, he took the initiative and acted in an innovative way. But if one pauses and thinks about what would have been the position under the Bill as it is at present, would it have made the situation more difficult or would it have alleviated the situation? I suggest it is quite clear that it would have done neither.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Mackay of Clashfern]

My Lords, I think that we would all take the view that the last thing we want to do in any sort of legislation is endanger patient safety. However, I suggest that the honourable Honor Smith was not acting under my noble friend Lord Saatchi’s Bill; she was acting, I take it, under the law that existed at that time. Therefore, even in the best regulated circles, with no provision for innovation, something can happen. No doubt the lady thought that she was doing the right thing when she did it, but it turned out ultimately that that was not so.

With regard to the Bill, the ultimate test of the defence is whether it is in the best interests of the patient. In taking account of views from qualified people in the area, that is an important factor. It is necessary that a doctor who is going to use this treatment should be able to satisfy the court that, in the light of the available evidence at the time when the decision was taken, this decision was in the best interests of the patient. Therefore, endangering a patient strikes me as something that is already covered quite clearly by that requirement. The mention of danger must be an important aspect of the best interests of the patient, surely.

On Amendment 2 from the noble Lord, Lord Winston, he talks about the body of medical opinion. The cases that I know of talk about “a” body; lawyers certainly do not often agree one with another and I think that sometimes doctors do not agree either. Someone therefore has to make a choice from time to time.

It is perfectly clear that we all want to prevent patients from being put in danger. I have seen and listened to the programmes by the noble Lord, Lord Winston, about the injection of stem cells into people for money in different parts of the world without the promised success ensuing from that. I am sure that there is a danger in that area. Indeed, there are dangers in many areas. However, the problem for the doctor—and I am glad in a way that this responsibility is not the kind of responsibility that one has to carry generally in other professions—is that it is the life of the patient that may well be in question. Therefore, in taking an innovative step it is essential that the views which are available in relation to the matter and which are reasonably readily available to the doctor making the decision to use the treatment are taken fully into account. That is what this Bill is trying to do.

The Bill is set out as providing for responsible innovation. One of the fundamental elements of responsibility must be the patient’s safety. While I entirely agree with the view that that is an important issue, I believe that the Bill safeguards that so far as possible. The experience to which the noble Lord, Lord Walton, referred is an example of what can happen. On the other hand, you cannot make certain; nothing is infallible. I believe that from that point of view this is as good as we can achieve.

[Baroness Wheeler]

This is a very important group dealing with patient safety. I shall briefly intervene in support of my noble friend Lord Turnberg’s Amendment 3, which refers to seeking the support of the appropriately qualified doctor rather than his or her views, and to support Amendment 7 from the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, on recording the treatment and consultation on the patient’s notes.

Our firm preference was for the Bill to specify the need for the written consent of the appropriately qualified doctor, but we have heard senior medical doctors’ concerns about giving formal written consent to another doctor’s proposed course of treatment for the patient without knowing their full history and other circumstances.

As my noble friend Lord Turnberg said, there is something of an irony in a Bill designed to address doctors’ fears of litigation running the risk of opening up the fear of litigation from the supporting doctor. We consider “support” to be preferable to the doctor’s “views” and I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, can respond positively to this as a way of reassuring patients and their carers and relatives and enhancing patient safety.

My noble friend Lord Winston’s Amendment 2 seeks additional safeguards for patient safety by reference to excluding treatment where a,

“body of responsible medical opinion”,

considers that the treatment is likely seriously or unreasonably to compromise patient safety. He has raised some very important issues here, particularly in response to cancer treatment, and I look forward to hearing from the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, or the Minister.

The clarification the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, provides in Amendment 7 concerning the issues to be recorded in the patient’s notes provides welcome safeguards. It does not include the full range of issues, covered under Clause 1(3), which noble Lords have been concerned to see recorded in the patient’s notes, but it goes some way to providing the greater transparency and accountability that we all wish to see, particularly in recording the doctor’s decision to depart from the existing range of accepted medical treatments for the patient’s condition and the explanation of the proposed treatment.

Finally, we have considerable sympathy with Amendment 13 for the reasons ably put forward by my noble friends Lord Winston and Lord Turnberg, and I look forward to hearing from the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, or the Minister on this issue.

[Baroness Jolly]

My Lords, I shall start my remarks by addressing Amendment 13. This amendment seeks to exclude from the Bill treatments that involve the insertion or injection of cells, tissues or other biologically derived material into the body of a patient. The Government do not consider this amendment to be necessary. The use of human tissue and cells is a heavily regulated area of practice. It is regulated by the Human Tissue Authority, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. As part of making a responsible decision to innovate, the Bill requires that a doctor must consider not only the risks and benefits of the proposed treatment but how they would compare with other treatments and with not carrying out any treatment. This requirement provides a robust objective test of whether an innovative treatment should be used.

Clause 1(5) makes clear that the requirements in the law relating to best interests continue to apply in that nothing in the Bill permits a doctor to carry out treatment for any purpose other than the best interests of the patient. Further to this, the amended Bill requires doctors to act responsibly, including taking full account, in a responsible way, of the views of other appropriately qualified doctors. This clause provides a critical safeguard in ensuring that there is expert peer review of the doctor’s proposal and that the doctor acts responsibly in taking account of that review. Clause 1(3)(c) requires that doctors obtain any consents required by law when taking a decision to depart from the existing range of accepted medical treatments for a condition.

The Bill provides safeguards for patients while ensuring that doctors can use their clinical judgment and be flexible to individual patients’ circumstances.

I now move to Amendments 2, 3 and 7. It is essential that any legislation is safe for patients. That is why the Government are pleased that the package of amendments devised with advice from Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of NHS England, to make the Bill safe for patients was accepted in Committee in this House on 24 October. The noble Lord, Lord Winston, has tabled an amendment that seeks to ensure that a doctor cannot rely on the Bill where a body of responsible medical opinion considers the treatment to compromise patient safety. He referred to the recent debate in the other place where my honourable friend George Freeman, the Minister, asserted that the Government are dedicated to patient safety and evidence-based medicine. I should like to reassure noble Lords that the Bill does not remove any of the current safeguards in place to protect patient safety. If the innovative treatment was considered likely to compromise patient safety, it is extremely unlikely that it would be considered a responsible decision under the Bill when later judged in court. A doctor who innovated in such circumstances is highly likely to be aware that his or her decision would not be considered responsible.

The noble Lord, Lord Winston, raised a couple of points. One was about quack doctors and the other was about stem cell injection. The Bill does not remove any safeguards for patients. There is no escape for negligent doctors under the Bill. They still need to demonstrate that they have acted responsibly. Nothing in the Bill allows doctors to bypass any processes and requirements set by their trust in relation to undertaking innovative treatments in the NHS. This would include ensuring that the commissioners would fund any treatment if it is to be provided within the NHS. Individual innovation is incredibly important, but it is not a substitute for medical research, which usually tests the efficacy of treatments in a systematic way. Successful individual innovations are likely to lead to systematic research projects as evidence builds around a particular speciality. As part of their professional development, doctors should contribute to research as well as look for innovative ways to treat their patients. Noble Lords will be pleased to note that we will emphasise the importance of research in accompanying guidance to doctors on the use of the Bill.

On stem cell injection damaging patient safety, there is no reason for the Bill to damage patient safety. The decision to innovate under the Bill has to be responsible and the doctor would be negligent if he did not innovate responsibly. The Bill gives no extra leeway in respect of stem cell injection, as he suggested. Any decision to inject stem cells would have to comply with all existing safeguards and be responsible. The alarming examples given by the noble Lord are extremely unlikely to have been responsible. Quack treatments would simply not pass the hurdles of responsible decisions required by the Bill.

The amended Bill requires doctors to act responsibly, taking full account of the views of other appropriately qualified doctors. This clause provides a critical safeguard in ensuring that there is expert peer review of the doctor’s proposal and that the doctor acts responsibly in taking account of that review. Clause 1(3)(c) requires that doctors obtain any consents required by law when taking a decision to depart from the existing range of accepted medical treatments for a condition.

Medical Innovation Bill [HL]

Baroness Wheeler Excerpts

Friday 27th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wheeler (Lab)]

My Lords, I, too, pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, for his courage and determination in bringing the Bill forward. This House has an excellent record in making sure that the importance of NHS innovation and research is kept to the fore of our debates, and in its scrutiny of health and social care legislation, including, most recently, ensuring that both the Health Research Authority and Health Education England have the key duty to promote innovation and research at the heart of their statutory responsibilities and duties.

As all speakers today have said, there is strong support for the principles and intent of what the noble Lord is trying to achieve and widespread respect for the dignified and very powerful and moving contribution and arguments he put forward. There is also full recognition that the Bill raises key issues over how innovation and research can best be pursued which need to be addressed.

Labour has always strongly supported efforts to bring innovative treatments to patients faster and underlined the need for a major effort by government to address the barriers and bureaucracy that prevent progress being made and ensure that innovations are rapidly transcribed into practice. As we know, the consultation on the Bill was conducted on the previous draft of the Bill. Many of the respondents to the consultation rightly underline their desire to see new and innovative medical treatments in the NHS and support the efforts of the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, to achieve this. We all want to achieve this aim, and the question before us today is how and whether the changes proposed will help achieve this.

Having been a Member of the House for four years now, and like other noble Lords, I cannot recall another occasion when I have received such a huge amount of solid background briefings, legal documents and advice. I have certainly never before experienced such a powerful and overwhelming “home-straits” push from the sponsor of a Private Member’s Bill. The final 60-page briefing of the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, sets out his belief that the two major concerns of opponents to the Bill are, first, that there is insufficient evidence that the Bill is needed; and, secondly, that the Bill may encourage quackery. The noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, believes that the fear of litigation or disciplinary proceedings stops doctors adopting innovative treatments and reinforces the culture of fear and defensive medicine in a risk-averse NHS.

In July 2013, in response to an Oral Question from the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, on the costs of medical litigation, the Minister has previously commented that he has seen,

“no evidence that a particularly large or indeed significant element of that bill relates to medical innovation”.—[Official Report, 15/7/13; col. 524.]

Will the Minister update the House on the latest Department of Health information concerning medical litigation costs and any further research that has been conducted by the department on how the increasing litigation bill impacts on medical innovation?

The noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, also argues that the Bill would provide legal clarity and confidence for doctors when they wish to innovate and that without a change in the law many doctors feel compelled to stick to the well worn path of standardised treatments. He has endeavoured to set out under the Bill essential safeguards and an accountable and transparent system for doctors to follow when deciding whether and how to innovate. Our understanding from press reports was that Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS medical director, had been asked by the Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt, to set out the process and framework of how the new legislation could work in practice. That, of course, is vital to consideration of the Bill. We now understand that he has been working on amendments to the Bill itself, and I look forward to hearing further from the Minister on this.

Jeremy Hunt’s Written Statement in the Commons on 22 November last year committed the Government to seeking to,

“legislate at the earliest opportunity, subject to the results of the consultation”—[Official Report, Commons, 22/11/13; col. 66WS]—

on the Bill. I look forward to hearing from the Minister what support the Government are giving to the Bill before us, given the changes to the Bill after the consultation. Will the Government be publishing a formal response to the consultation? Do they undertake to make time for the Bill in this Session of Parliament, as the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, wants to see?

Finally, in his Statement Jeremy Hunt also supported the contention in the Bill of the threat of litigation against doctors but recognised that as just “one … barrier” to medical innovation. The noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, has made it clear that he, too, sees his Bill in that context; and it is important that, whatever the shape of any final legislation, the House acknowledges that too. Medical innovation and the adoption of new treatments require the whole NHS making research and innovation its business—as was so powerfully set out in the Association of Medical Research Charities’ excellent 2013 report, Our Vision for Research in the NHS, which was the subject of a debate in the House initiated by my noble friend Lord Turnberg and referred to by him earlier.

In response to that debate, the Minister’s follow-up letter of July 2013 to my noble friend contends that,

“the current system allows for medics to initiate novel treatments as long as they are in the best interests of patients and with the patient consent”.

That view is supported by the majority of the bodies representing the medical profession and other health organisations which responded to the consultation. During the AMRC debate, the Minister also reported to the House, in very helpful detail, the actions being taken by the various NHS bodies to address the current obstacles to innovation. Sir Robert Francis, a strong opponent of the Bill in its current form, sums up these obstacles in his very concise and to-the-point way as,

“overzealous bureaucracy, scarcity of resources, ethical reservations and decision-making processes”.

What have the Government done to address these obstacles, so fully identified in debates in this House, and the frustrations expressed that the existing processes and pathways are not being fully used? How have they promoted early access schemes to introduce new drugs and treatments? Take-up by health authorities has been painfully slow, so what are the latest figures? What is the latest position on take-up figures on other key measures designed to speed up getting research and innovation transcribed into practice, such as named patient schemes and adaptive licensing schemes? Are the Government satisfied that the Health Research Authority’s new process for speeding up approval for clinical trials is achieving this? How is the variation across NHS trusts in the take-up of NICE-approved technology appraisals and of the actions outlined in the UK life sciences strategy being addressed?

The issue of whether the current law needs to be changed involves complex legal arguments which have been ably set out by the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, both today and in his briefing documents, and expertly supported by the noble and learned Lords, Lord Mackay and Lord Woolf, and other speakers. These have been equally expertly refuted by noble Lords with deep concerns about the Bill, as well as by the many organisations that have expressed reservations and opposition. They argue strongly that no change in the law is necessary, that a different change is needed and that any additional support required by doctors should be achieved through guidance on good practice, not through legislation.

I look forward to hearing the Government’s view on the proposed changes to the law. The Opposition will be seeking their own legal advice as the Bill progresses. On that issue, I emphasise that Labour’s strong wish and hope is that the Bill should proceed to full Committee scrutiny. The issues raised are crucial, and my understanding is that the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, is keen to ensure that, rather than any rushed process, there will be a full debate and scrutiny after today.

The noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, is to be commended on his concern to ensure that the importance of patient consent to treatment is firmly embedded in the Bill and that his proposed change in the law would not affect this. As the Bill progresses we will want to see further measures that ensure that decisions on innovative and new treatments are made with sufficient regard to efficacy and patient safety. In this debate we have heard of concerns expressed by the some of the key patient safety organisations about the Bill.

Noble Lords will know that Action against Medical Research has contended that, although having good intentions, the Bill could have the gravest “unintended consequences” by removing a layer of protection and redress for vulnerable patients who are harmed when their doctors act in a way that no other doctor would support. AvMR says that it would also encourage unsafe and unaccountable practice by doctors and lead to further scandals and tragedies. Sir Robert Francis’s concern is that the Bill removes protection from patients and a right to redress without any adequate safeguards. The noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, addressed many of these concerns in his opening speech, and I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response to the AvMR, Sir Robert Francis’s concerns on patient safety and warnings from the medical organisations about safeguarding patients. How do the Government propose to address these concerns?

There is strong concern over how the doctor’s “responsible officer”, referred to in the Bill, is to be identified. What is the Government’s response to this? What is the Government’s view on how this proposed new law will facilitate and help achieve the major culture change that is needed in the NHS among staff at all levels to ensure that research and innovation is everybody’s business? The survey accompanying the AMRC vision report set out the extent and scale of change among staff and patients that needs to happen to achieve the Government’s goal of,

“every clinician a researcher and every willing patient a research participant”.

In summary, we support the principle of the Bill; we support the desired effect that the noble Lord, Lord Saatchi, wishes to achieve; and we want to have the Bill seen and considered in the context of the urgent need to make real progress on tackling the obstacles and barriers that stop the existing laws and processes which support the introduction of new and innovative treatments being fully used and effective. I look forward to hearing from the Minister how he proposes to proceed.