---

Health and Social Care Bill

moved Amendment No. 28: 28: Clause 41, page 20, line 5, leave out ““may”” and insert ““shall”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 29 and 31 standing in my name and in the names of the noble Earl, Lord Onslow, and the noble Lord, Lord Dubs. These amendments are proposed by the Joint Committee on Human Rights and are a very slightly amended version of amendments not moved in Committee. Currently, the Bill provides for the Secretary of State to have the power to make standards in relation to the provision of NHS care. The Joint Committee on Human Rights is proposing that ““may”” should become ““shall”” and that the power to publish standards should also apply to all health and social care. We are also proposing that these standards should include specific and detailed matters to ensure that human rights are respected. This list in Amendment No. 31 is not plucked out of the air. It is based very closely on the recommendations arising from the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ inquiry into older people in healthcare. In that inquiry, the committee welcomed the existing healthcare standards which require the NHS to respect human rights and treat patients with dignity and respect. However, the committee felt that more specificity was needed. This was based very much on what emerged in our inquiry from the evidence we received and the places we visited. The committee considered that the human rights of residents should be explicitly addressed in the standards which apply to both health and social care to make it clear that the human rights of people in care homes are as important and as enforceable as the human rights of patients in hospital. The committee went on to make a recommendation about the Bill we are discussing today. I will quote briefly what we said: "““We also recommend that when the Health and Social Care Inspectorates are merged the standards applicable to quality of care and other issues engaging the human rights of users of services should be the same for both NHS trusts and care homes. The unified standards should expressly require compliance with human rights standards by hospitals and care homes and state that patients and care home residents have the legal right to respect for and protection of their human rights. The newly established inspectorate should provide guidance to providers of services on the implications of such requirements””." The Government responded to that recommendation very helpfully, saying: "““It is our intention to introduce an integrated registration system across health and adult social care, based on a set of requirements that apply across all settings””." In light of that commitment, I ask the Minister why the Bill currently enables the Secretary of State to make new standards for the NHS but not for social care and why the Government do not consider it appropriate to require the Secretary of State to introduce standards that will explicitly provide for the protection and promotion of the rights of service users. I beg to move.