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NHS Redress Bill [Lords]

The hon. Gentleman makes an extremely important point. However, our intention is precisely the opposite. It is to encourage a much more open culture in which doctors and other clinicians feel that they can own up to and learn from their mistakes—as is already best practice—rather than finding themselves in an adversarial situation in which they might deny that anything had gone wrong, possibly at the behest of their lawyers or their insurance company. I shall deal in a moment with the role of the Healthcare Commission, which will have the important responsibility of ensuring that each hospital trust—each scheme member—is applying and operating the scheme in the way that is intended.