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Health and Social Care Bill

Amendment No. 24 would require the Care Quality Commission to perform its functions for the general purposes of encouraging the promotion of sustainable development. This would be in addition to the requirement in Clause 2 of the Bill for the commission to carry out its functions for the general purposes of encouraging improvements in healthcare, user-focused care and the efficient and effective use of resources. I think that we all agree about the vital importance of delivering sustainable development. The Government are working hard and looking across the whole system for opportunities to push this important agenda forward using levers such as effective commissioning. In particular, we recognise the profound responsibility of the NHS because, as the noble Baroness said, it is such a large player in the public sector. Health and adult social care sectors spend more than £100 billion of public money—it is currently around £110 billion—and involve about 2.9 million people in the delivery of services.