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Health and Social Care Bill

My Lords, I support Amendment No. 20, to which I have put my name. I shall speak briefly on it because time is getting on and the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, has already moved it clearly and cogently. The absence of public health from the Bill has been noted intermittently in our debates. Anna Walker, the chief executive of the Healthcare Commission, has bemoaned the fact that the registration requirements explicitly say that the commission cannot bite on public health issues, so the CQC is dealing with healthcare rather than health. Amendment No. 20 offers a gentle but necessary correction to that tendency. As for disability discrimination, people exercising functions of a public nature are already prohibited from discriminating against disabled people under the Disability Discrimination Acts. The 1995 Act prohibits discrimination in the provision of goods and services, so Amendment No. 20 would not add a particularly onerous new burden on health authorities. It could, however, deal with some cases that are not covered by existing law. For example, it has been brought to my attention that people with mental health problems have particular difficulty when trying to volunteer in a health or social care setting. The Disability Discrimination Act would help to overcome that situation. Most importantly, it could enable the CQC to help providers to relate existing law and best practice to the daily reality of health and social care provision. The amendment would make things clearer and easier for both users and providers, and I am happy to support it.