---

Health and Social Care Bill

Before the noble Baroness does that, would the Minister enlighten me a little? In this part of the Bill we have very few friends. Normally when we have a Bill there is a body of people who say, ““Yup, what you’re doing is absolutely right””, but it has been hard to find that constituency with regard to merging these three bodies. In opening, the noble Baroness, Lady Murphy, said that here we have two regulators with no boundaries and with overlapping powers. We have a situation that could end up in quite a muddle. I take the points that have been made about people knowing exactly who is going to regulate and who is going to do what. I wonder if the Minister thinks that this is an area where the two bodies should get some guidelines together so that everyone knows exactly who is doing what and when. Monitor has been sensationally good. When one sees the amount of fear and anxiety there is about doing well in the people who are going before Monitor in order to become a foundation trust, including among the non-executives, one can see why it has been such a good regulator. If all the institutions become foundation trusts, do we have an opportunity here for Monitor to regulate the hospitals so that more of the work for social care could be in the remit of the new Care Quality Commission? That could go some way towards welcoming some of the thoughts that have been put to the Minister throughout Committee about the separation that we already have.