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Health and Social Care Bill

My Lords, I am afraid that I will disappoint some of my medical and nursing colleagues. We had arrived at a consensus around the House that the civil standard of proof was the right one. The GMC is supportive of that. I can see the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, nodding her head. I should say that I have been egged on to say this by the noble Lord, Lord Patel, who has been sitting behind me sticking me in the back saying, ““Tell them that we don’t all agree””. I respect the fact that there will be anxieties about this in the medical profession. However, many of us doctors feel that we are, after all, the same as other healthcare professional groups that have had this standard of proof for a long time. We would like to see the provision remain in the Bill so that the GMC cannot change its mind at some future point and decide that it wants to go back to doing something else. Under the Bill as drafted, it would have to adhere to the way in which this is done in other professions and I think that it would be all the better for that.