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Health and Social Care Bill

Would it be appropriate for me first to respond on behalf of the Government? Time is moving on. Noble Lords have eloquently expressed their concerns that social care or mental health may be marginalised within the new body. That theme has run throughout the discussions on the Bill. I assure noble Lords, as did my noble friend the Minister did at Second Reading and on several other occasions, that we have set the new Care Quality Commission’s functions squarely within the legislation. We have continuously made clear in both Houses that the social care and mental health functions must have parity in the new commission. The integration of the three current commissions will not mean that social care or mental health are overwhelmed by health within the new body. These different and vital roles will be reflected on the board and in everything that the commission does. When the noble Lord, Lord Low, expressed his anxiety about the board some time ago—in fact, two Divisions ago—he built a case about lone voices that those reassurances have not yet satisfied. So again I say to him and to the Committee that board members will have a collective responsibility for the decisions made by the board, whose role is to ensure that the organisation delivers the business plan, as agreed. They will be held accountable for this and they will reflect the three different strands of the commission. In relation to the comments on creating separate sub-commissions, we are bringing health, social care and mental health regulation together into a single organisation creating an integrated regulator. I feel slightly that one can never please the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge. The Liberal Democrats supported such a proposal three years ago, so I would have thought that she would be congratulating the Government on at long last seeing the light. As the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, said, the proposal in the amendment carries a very great risk of creating ““silos”” within the organisation even before it gets to first base. This is what we must seek to avoid. The only way of preventing competition between the different elements is to create a single organisation with overall responsibility for the regulation of health, adult social care and mental health.