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Health and Social Care Bill

No. They may well do that and I hope that they will. I do not intend to extend the debate to become one of those that we held at length when LINks were established. The hon. Lady made a good point earlier that some patients and some patient and user organisations sometimes resent other organisations speaking on their behalf. We do not want to prescribe that the CQC should pay regard only to LINks, and not to other patient and user organisations. Although Government amendment No. 62 was tabled in the same spirit as amendment No. 131, it has the distinct advantage of leaving the door open for other representative groups and for leaving it to the independent commission to determine for itself the most effective way in which to engage appropriate groups. Given the amendment that we have just accepted, we believe that amendment No. 131 and consequential amendment No. 136 are unnecessary. Amendments Nos. 132, 133, 134 and 135 would insert into clauses 103 and 112 a duty on the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence and the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator to seek the views from time to time of LINks in addition to other bodies. Amendment No. 137 is simply a consequential amendment to define ““Local Involvement Network”” in clause 122. Under the Bill as drafted, the CHRE and the OHPA are both required to consult public and representative bodies on exercising their functions. We believe that those independent bodies are best placed to decide from which other bodies they should seek views. Indeed, the council has already embarked on a programme of work, which will lead to the implementation of a patient and public strategy. That is being designed to ensure that the council can fulfil the proposed statutory function of becoming an authoritative voice for patients. I reiterate what I said in Committee about arrangements between LINks and the CQC. Although we want to encourage strong relationships between LINks and their key stakeholders, including the CQC, the CHRE and the OHPA, we do not believe that it is appropriate to dictate to those statutory and independent bodies the way in which they should involve LINks in inspections or consultations. I hope that, given our discussion, the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr. O'Brien) will withdraw the amendment.