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Health and Social Care Bill

I must say, I do not envy the Minister’s task in answering on these complex issues. On the one hand, there is a strong case to be made for having legally qualified chairs of these fitness-to-practise panels. On the other hand, if that is accepted, what is the role of the legal assessor who, under Clause 98, will be present at every hearing to advise the panel on matters of law? In my experience, the legal assessor played an invaluable role in being able to advise the panel on difficult points of law. It could be, of course, that the chair of the panel, if legally qualified, might be a barrister who took a completely different view from the legal assessor of the legal issues involved, or might be a solicitor who then felt rather overawed by the presence of a highly qualified legal assessor who was a Queen’s Counsel. It is very complex. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, I am concerned about the principle of having pilot studies and pilot schemes in this very difficult and complex area. The GMC makes a number of points. Whether or not the perceived procedural advantage of legally qualified chairs sufficiently justifies the loss of the current separation between decision-making and the provision of legal advice, if we always have legal chairs, other panellists—lay members and doctors—may be perceived as second-class participants in the proceedings. Are we confident that the blurring of roles between a legally qualified chair on the one hand and the legal adviser on the other might end up with the legally qualified chairman offering advice and guidance in private to fellow panellists that should, in the interests of fairness, be repeated publicly? This is a very difficult and complex issue, and I do not see how it can be readily resolved. I feel very uncomfortable about the pilot studies.