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Health and Social Care Bill

I strongly support this group of amendments, which is so vital to creating a genuine culture and respect for human rights across health and social care. They have been superbly covered by the noble Baroness, Lady Stern, and the noble Lord, Lord Low. I strongly support the need to make human rights central to the work of the new Care Quality Commission. As RADAR puts it: "““Human rights are not ‘just another consideration’, they are the prime consideration underpinning everything else””." The core principles behind human rights are autonomy, dignity and equality, and it is these which must guide and inspire the new commission in its work. Indeed, we recently voted in support of measures to make sure that health and social care providers ensure that service users are empowered with information about their human rights and that rights are respected throughout the hospital discharge process, when we passed the Disabled Persons (Independent Living) Bill, introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Ashley of Stoke. Building a human rights culture across health and social care will require all the measures set out in these amendments, and more. So widespread is the level of ignorance and disrespect for basic human rights standards, we should take this opportunity to enact the JCHR recommendations without delay.