Health and Social Care Bill

Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Wednesday 7th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Campbell-Savours]

My Lords, a number of Members of the House have suggested alternative ways forward. The best suggestion came from my noble friend Lord Richard. He made the perfectly reasonable suggestion that the Report stage be deferred until we get a ruling on the appeal. I am a mere mortal Back-Bencher, making the offer on behalf of colleagues, but I would imagine that my own Front Bench would support that proposition. Why do we not simply defer it? It is a perfectly reasonable suggestion. The Government will get their way and we will get our way in the sense that we will then be informed when we get to the Report stage of the Bill.

In reality, what is happening today is that the Government are simply using an appeal procedure to delay, knowing this will ensure that certain issues, which should be freely discussed on the Floor of the House during the course of consideration of the Bill, are not going to be discussed. It may be worth noting the comments of Justine Greening when she experienced similar problems under, regrettably, the previous Labour Government. These are her words:

“The DfT’s refusal to release the register until ordered by the Commissioner”—

which we subsequently did, of course—

“shows that Ministers have truly lost all integrity on being open with the public they are there to serve”.

If that was the attitude taken by the noble Earl’s colleagues at that time, why should it not be our attitude today? Perhaps in the light of Justine Greening’s comments at that time, he may wish to reconsider his own position on these matters.

--- Later in debate ---

[Earl Howe]

Having anticipated that question before this debate, I made a point of asking but I am afraid that I do not have a definite answer to give the noble Baroness at this stage. As soon as I am able, I would be delighted to do so.

Our appeal is based on the belief that the commissioner has not given sufficient weight in his judgment to the considerations embodied in the relevant provisions of the relevant FOI Act. As the noble Lord, Lord Butler, made clear on 28 November, the ruling has serious implications across government in the precedent it sets for all risk registers.

[Lord Campbell-Savours]

The noble Earl said that he could not give us an idea of the timetable, but he does have something under his control: he has control of the timing of Report. He could say, “We will defer Report stage until the appeal result”. Why does he not just do that?

[Earl Howe]

The noble Lord knows that that is a matter for the House and the usual channels and not for me. However, I have no doubt that his suggestion will be registered in the appropriate places and will be considered. He must understand that it is not solely in my gift to order the business of this House.

I am of course acutely aware of the concerns of noble Lords on this issue. However, I would just ask those noble Lords who may at first blush be inclined to side with the noble Baroness in her amendment to recognise that there is room for an honestly held difference of view on this matter, that the principle involved is very important for the workings of government and that the Government have acted both properly and reasonably in asking the Information Tribunal to reconsider the merits of the case.