Health and Social Care Bill

Debate between Lord Davies of Stamford and Baroness Jay of Paddington

Tuesday 25th October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jay of Paddington]

This must not develop into a private discussion about the finer points of our report or the law, in which the noble and learned Lord would certainly be more expert than me. Surely the difference now is that, as it says in the guidance on this Bill,

“the commissioning and provision of services will no longer be delegated by the Secretary of State, but will be directly conferred on the organisations responsible”.

So the organisations responsible cannot have the legal duty that is embraced by the present Act. Therefore, the legal responsibilities of the Secretary of State are automatically fragmented. The straight line of legal enforceability and responsibility, through the bodies who have rightly—as the noble and learned Lord has said—been delegated over a number of years to other providers, has been broken. That link in the chain has gone.

[Lord Davies of Stamford]

Before the noble Baroness sits down, I wonder if she could just help me with—