---

Health and Social Care Bill

I hear what my hon. Friend says, but it is important to get back to where we started before we start to develop our ideas. I have a lot of sympathy with his points, but we must resolve the immediate problem first. I am pleased that my hon. Friend the Minister has recognised the importance of this matter and that it will be returned to in the other place. I am not entirely sure that he is with us, however, when he talks about looking only at the regulatory powers aspect. Does he therefore exclude the general application of the Human Rights Act 1998 to care home residents, including, for example, their power to take matters to judicial review, as in the YL case and the Leonard Cheshire homes court case? Those cases were brought by individuals who were affected; they enforced their own rights and were not reliant on the commission or another agency to help them do so. I hope that when the Government table an amendment in the other place, it will address the fundamental problem of the definition of what is a public authority in this context, as one of my amendments would do. On that basis, I would be happy not to press this particular matter any further. On wider issues, the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr. O'Brien) raised the important need for a rights-based approach. That is fundamental to the second batch of amendments, if I can use that general term to describe the amendments that are all variations on that theme. I am concerned that my hon. Friend the Minister says we are raising expectations, because the expectations in question relate to people's rights that already exist. That takes us back to a point I made earlier: the Government say that they expect certain things to be done, but the rights already exist in law and should be enforced. I am therefore concerned that he feels that they should not be included in the Bill, in the context of a rights-based approach. It is said that the matter will fall under the commission's general responsibilities, and that it will conduct enforcement and inspections in the spirit of the Human Rights Act, but if that fundamental principle is not included in the Bill in some way, shape or form, the importance of that rights-based approach will be underplayed. All the evidence that we have received supports that argument—as, I think, does the evidence the Public Bill Committee received. In the spirit of compromise, I do not propose to call for a vote. My hon. Friend has said that these issues can be looked at again in the other place. As he knows, one advantage of the Joint Committee on Human Rights is that we have members from both Houses, so we can keep each other well briefed and informed. If my hon. Friend does not table amendments, particularly on the rights-based approach, I will be very surprised if my Committee colleagues in the other place do not do the job for him again, so that we end up having this debate again, perhaps even on Lords amendments back in this House. We have had sweetness and light so far today, and I would give the Government a mark of seven out of 10. On that basis, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion. Motion and clause, by leave, withdrawn.