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Health and Social Care Bill

That was admirably brief, although I may not be quite so brief. The amendment proposes that a statutory requirement be placed on the OHPA to carry out performance appraisal of the chairs and members of its fitness-to-practise panels. Clearly, the need is for the OHPA and its stakeholders to be confident that fitness-to-practise panels are discharging their duties in a fair and proper manner. This will require the monitoring of the decisions of the panels themselves and the conduct of the individual panellists. However, this really does not require primary legislation. For example, the General Optical Council monitors the performance of their panels with regard to their decisions and to the performance of the individual members. In appraising the performance of individual panel members, the GOC provides a detailed framework for meetings between a panel member and an appraiser. The appraiser may be a chair-trained panel member or, in the case of when a chair-trained panel member is being appraised, an external appraiser. This seems to work extremely well. The General Medical Council, having examined a range of options and conducted pilots, is also adopting a new scheme of appraisal for its panellists. Both the GMC and the GOC produce papers for council meetings on the appraisal process and results. Clause 96 sets out that persons appointed to a list hold and vacate the office in accordance with the terms of their appointment. We expect that these terms will include the need to participate in ongoing training and appraisal. It will be a crucial part of the OHPA’s role to ensure that panels and individual panellists are operating effectively. As appraisals are currently undertaken by the current regulators without primary legislation, we are content for the same arrangements to apply to the OHPA. With that, I ask the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, to withdraw her amendment.