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Health and Social Care Bill

Along with other Members who are here, I served on the Public Bill Committee, and I want to put before the House one or two comments about my experience of listening to evidence at that stage, which is a relatively new procedure. It was useful in informing our proceedings, not least when we saw the Minister cross-examining people who came to give evidence and then giving evidence himself. That was a useful exercise for him to go through in the knowledge that he would be on both ends of it. I want to pick up four points, three of which deal with the evidence that we heard. I commend the Minister for the successful way in which he dealt with part 1, which establishes the Care Quality Commission. That is one of the reasons why I wish the Bill well from now on as it leaves this place, in contradistinction to the hon. Member for Romsey (Sandra Gidley). The Liberal Democrats welcome the change in principle and then go on to quibble about the timing of the merger and how it is going to take place, and say that the staff who are being reorganised want certainty.