Health and Social Care Act 2012: Risk Register

Baroness Knight of Collingtree Excerpts

Wednesday 9th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

The Government of which the noble Lord was such a distinguished member took the same approach to risk registers. Of course, transparency is an important principle in health and care. It is important to drive up performance and expose institutional failure, and I believe there is a revolution taking place in the level of transparency and access to health and care information. I am sure we are agreed on that. The point that I sought to make earlier is that when it comes to policy-making within government, Ministers and civil servants are entitled to some safe space, so the principle of transparency has to be moderated to a certain extent. That is the balance that we have struck.

[Baroness Knight of Collingtree (Con)]

My Lords, is it not the case that a recent independent Commonwealth Fund report said that Britain had the best and safest healthcare system of all the 11 wealthiest nations? Since we know that the NHS is the biggest organisation and business of its kind in Europe, with all the opportunities for it to go wrong, is this not an extremely telling assessment of the real situation?

[Earl Howe]

I agree completely with my noble friend. The Commonwealth Fund report covers the period from 2011 to 2013—exactly when we were in the middle of reforming the NHS. The findings of the report were a credit to all those working on the front line of the healthcare system throughout that period of change.