Department of Health: Arm’s-length Bodies

Debate between Earl Howe and Lord Knight of Weymouth

Tuesday 16th November 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Knight of Weymouth]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the cost of organisational changes required to implement the proposals to reform the Department of Health’s non-departmental public bodies; and whether the cost will be allocated to that department’s budget.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe)]

My Lords, the Government have announced that administration costs will reduce by a third in real terms across the health sector. This will impact on the Department of Health’s arm’s-length bodies. Currently, we cannot determine the exact costs, as they will be affected by how the reduction is distributed across the health sector and how much is met by levels of natural wastage. The department’s spending review settlement will meet these costs.

[Lord Knight of Weymouth]

I thank the noble Earl for that reply. He will, I am sure, have listened carefully to the debate last week on the Public Bodies Bill. He will have heard half a dozen of your Lordships raise concerns about two health bodies in particular—the Human Tissue Authority and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Both have the schedule of Damocles hanging over them; both need independence and sensitivity; and both cost the public purse very little. Will the noble Earl now follow the precedent set by the noble Baroness, Lady Rawlings, when she announced during Questions last Thursday that Ofcom will not be scrapped and was being pulled from Schedule 7. Will he do the same for the Human Tissue Authority and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, we will obviously have an opportunity to debate these matters in Committee on the Public Bodies Bill, but I would just make a couple of general points. There are clear synergies between some of the functions performed by the HFEA, the HTA and the Care Quality Commission—they all license treatment. In addition, there is significant read-across to the potential scope of a new research regulator. All political parties at the election were agreed that we have too many of these bodies—too many quangos—and we have to reduce the cost of administration across government as a whole. We can debate at greater length the merits, and perhaps demerits, of the Government’s proposals. I look forward to that debate.