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Health and Social Care Bill

Amendment No. 131 proposes that a new clause be inserted after Clause 103. The new clause would require the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator to co-operate with the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence to enable the CHRE to perform its functions. This is a sensible issue to raise, and it is something that we considered carefully when drafting the legislation, so I am glad to have the opportunity to explain our views. There are two possible purposes for having such a duty. The first is to ensure that the OHPA benefits from the CHRE’s expertise in regulatory matters, and the second is to ensure that the CHRE can obtain the information that it needs from the OHPA to carry out its own statutory functions properly. On the first possible purpose, to ensure that the OHPA benefits from the CHRE’s expertise, the Bill as drafted already does so. Under Clause 104, the Bill requires the OHPA to consult the CHRE on its draft rules, which will set out almost every facet of its processes. By requiring the OHPA to consult the CHRE on those rules, the Bill ensures that there is an appropriate statutory guarantee that the CHRE will be able to express views and advise on existing best practice on all the important issues that the rules deal with. On the second possible purpose of having such a duty, to ensure that the CHRE can obtain the information that it needs—which the noble Earl referred to—from the OHPA to carry out its functions properly, existing legislation is already adequate. The OHPA is not a regulatory body; it will have functions only in relation to adjudication. The CHRE’s remit and functions extend only to regulatory bodies. I am happy to reassure Members of the Committee that legislation is already in place to ensure that the CHRE is able to obtain information about how the GMC and the GOC carry out the investigation, referral and presentation of fitness-to-practise cases for adjudication, which will of course be matters still falling within the CHRE’s remit. Any information that the CHRE might require in relation to the GMC’s or the GOC’s continued role in fitness to practise would be obtained from the relevant regulatory body. Section 27 of the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002 already places a statutory duty on the regulatory bodies to co-operate with the CHRE, which includes the provision of information when requested by the CHRE. However, I emphasise that there would also be nothing to prevent the OHPA and the CHRE from working together where that was beneficial. That model has already worked for the General Social Care Council, which is not in the CHRE’s remit, but which works with the CHRE. For example, the CHRE recently extended an invitation to the General Social Care Council to participate in work on professional boundaries. The CHRE also works effectively with patient and public organisations without any formal duty of co-operation. In light of my explanations on this issue, I hope that the noble Earl, Lord Howe, will feel able to withdraw the amendment.