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Health and Social Care Bill

I thank the Minister for that intervention, but although we do not need to establish LINks, there should have been some acknowledgement in the Bill of its presence and importance. LINks is in trouble over TUPE—the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981. It is not yet clear whether TUPE applies to staff in the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health, who badly need to know about that issue before the commission is abolished. A letter to the Department of Health from the CPPIH asks two crucial questions, which I press the Minister to answer; even if he cannot not do so now, he should do so fairly soon, because the matter is urgent. The commission asks the Department to"““Provide its opinion on whether TUPE is likely to apply””" and"““Give explicit instruction to the CPPIH regarding the risks associated with TUPE and current redundancy plans””." If those points are not clarified by the time the commission is abolished it may run up a huge bill that it will be unable to pay. My final point about part 1 relates to the Healthcare Commission and problems with the NHS complaints procedure that have been mentioned by other Members. The complaints process must be independent and fair, but with the removal of the commission from it we shall lose the automatic involvement of independent experts. In a complaint, especially where clinical there are problems, the involvement of knowledgeable, independent clinical specialists is essential.