Health and Social Care Bill

Lord Mawhinney Excerpts

Wednesday 29th February 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Crosby]

In replying to the last group of amendments the Minister referred to the fact that concern was expressed in many parts of the House about those issues. I am pleased to say that exactly the same is true of this group. Voices from the Cross Benches and from Labour as well as from the Conservative Party have been raised to address the need to ensure that CCGs always cover every resident individual so that we can ensure that the services of clinical commissioning groups are available to all the residents of the United Kingdom—or more precisely of England, although one could extend it to the United Kingdom.

One concern which has been expressed in the House on several occasions is whether, for example, people who are homeless or belong to Travelling groups, such as Gypsies or Didicois, would strictly be covered by the clinical commissioning groups given that there is not total coterminosity as there was in the old National Health Service. The purpose of Amendment 75, in particular, and the related Amendment 94 is specifically to ensure that nobody resident in the United Kingdom is simply left out of the new machinery. It is very important that this should be so as the people likely to be left out tend to be the most vulnerable members of society—the ones who slip through the cracks, if I can use that phrase. I am delighted to see that the noble Lord, Lord Laming, seems to share that view.

[Lord Mawhinney]

Can the noble Baroness tell us whether this amendment would also encompass illegal immigrants?

[Baroness Williams of Crosby]

The phrase used, which I think is also used in other parts of the Bill, is “resident in England”. It is not for me but for others, particularly the immigration tribunal, to judge whether somebody who is an immigrant to this country counts as a resident, but I would assume that if he was an illegal immigrant he would not be. If he or she were here except as an asylum seeker then clearly they would be covered by the amendment, which does not purport to set out a new set of immigration regulations. It would be inappropriate for the health service to do that. Therefore, let me turn back for a moment to Amendment 94 as well.