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Health and Social Care Bill

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. Independence is crucial. That obligatory independence will be lost in the complaints process that will result from the removal of the Healthcare Commission. It will be left to people in an internal complaints process to decide whether to include an independent view. Will they want to do so? Of course not. That is a huge weakness in the proposals. The hon. Member for Pendle (Mr. Prentice) pointed out that there would be a tremendous increase in the number of cases taken to the ombudsman. In a briefing, Age Concern noted that there could be a massive increase in the ombudsman's load if the proposals go ahead. I strongly press the Minister to write some independence into the proposed complaints procedure. My final points relate to part 5. What may for me be the most important clause in the Bill has not yet been mentioned: clause 129, ““Duty of Primary Care Trusts””, which deals with the arrangements for improving the quality of health care. It reveals that for the last six years, since I have been a Member, I have been taking entirely the wrong approach to complaints. I have been tackling providers about the service that they provide, but clause 129 indicates that I should have been tackling the commissioners because they have the right to remove the service. In the Queen's Speech debate on health, I described some of the appalling things that were happening in my patch and in others. Not long ago, I had a meeting with the chief executive and the chair of our primary care trust and I was encouraged. Even at that stage, the chair had received many complaints about the quality of care and was beginning to realise that it was the duty of the PCT as commissioner to point out the problems and try to get them rectified. I am pleased that clause 129 is in the Bill; it is short but it must not be lost, because it is crucial. Clauses 132 and 133 relate to the weighing and measuring of children in England and Wales. Obesity in children has been mentioned by the hon. Member for Dartford, at length, and by the hon. Member for Romsey (Sandra Gidley). The Select Committee on Health held an inquiry into obesity in 2003-04. Recommendation 45 stated:"““We recommend that throughout their time at school, children should have their Body Mass Index measured annually at school, perhaps by the school nurse, a health visitor, or other appropriate health professional. The results should be sent home in confidence to their parents, together with, where appropriate, advice on lifestyle, follow-up.””" At the time, we were slightly attacked as it was thought our proposals would stigmatise obese children. I did not think that argument had any force at all because there was evidence that parents were unaware that their children had a problem. The importance of public health issues, especially obesity, has been recognised for a long time. Public health came to the fore in the 1880s with the great recognition that bacteria caused disease. As time is not at an absolute premium, I should like to remind the House of Sir Walter Scott's words in the novel, ““The Surgeon's Daughter””, published in the 1820s. He bemoaned the poor recompense for a Scottish village doctor compared with his English counterpart:"““The burgesses of a Scottish borough are rendered by their limited means of luxury, inaccessible to gout, surfeits and all the comfortable chronic diseases which are attendant on wealth and indolence.""There the mothers of the state never make a point of pouring, in the course of every revolving year, a certain quantity of doctors' stuff through the bowels of their beloved children.””" As long ago as 1820, the problems of idleness and affluence were recognised. I do not say that we should return to poverty, but I welcome the Bill's emphasis on public health, especially the measures aimed at spotting overweight children—not to stigmatise them, but to tackle the problem.