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NHS Redress Bill [Lords]

The hon. Gentleman is right to raise that point. I can reassure him that there is provision under the Bill for such a report to be compiled on an annual basis by scheme members. Under clause 10, duties are imposed on members of the NHS redress scheme. Subsection (2)(j) contains a requirement to produce an annual report and the lessons to be learned from it. We are making a further amendment on that point. There is an expectation that scheme members will look in the round at cases that they have dealt with in the past year under the NHS redress scheme and, as the hon. Gentleman says, draw general conclusions and lessons from such cases and put that information into the public domain for local people to consider. However, in response to the amendment tabled by the hon. Member for Billericay, we argue that it would be wholly inappropriate for the report on an individual’s health care to be placed in the public domain by an NHS trust. An individual may choose to do that following the receipt of such a report, but that could not be mandated under the Bill. The general point made by the hon. Member for Northavon (Steve Webb) is picked up by the Bill further on. The third problem with amendment No. 4 is the reference to ““independent investigation””. I consider this inappropriate because we do not intend that there should be an independent investigation. We will discuss the issues around independence in due course, but for the three reasons that I have outlined, I reject the amendment. Amendments Nos. 16 to 18 show the Government’s intention to require a member of the redress scheme to prepare and publish an annual report about cases falling under the scheme and the lessons to be learned from them—the report that I described a moment ago to the hon. Member for Northavon. I gave assurances about that in Committee. However, clause 10(2)(j) states that a scheme may"““require a member of the scheme to prepare and publish an annual report about such cases and the lessons to be learnt from them.””" I was asked in Committee by the hon. Members for Beverley and Holderness (Mr. Stuart) and for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Hurd) to accept that there should be a guarantee written into the Bill that annual reports will be provided. Being a partisan soul and one who, in very rare circumstances, considers himself likely to accept Conservative amendments to any Government legislation, I find myself in an extraordinary position. The hon. Gentlemen made a reasonable suggestion, and the amendments that we have tabled are a response to their sensible argument and the constructive discussions that we had. Indeed, it is desirable that such a report should be a requirement under the Bill, as suggested by the hon. Member for Northavon and the two Conservative Members. We are happy to amend the Bill to make that a requirement of membership of the NHS redress scheme. The word ““may”” has been replaced with ““must”” and the scheme must now require scheme members to publish annual reports on cases dealt with under the scheme and lessons to be learned from them. I have covered all the Government amendments. We will resist amendment No. 4.