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Health and Social Care Bill

moved Amendment No. 59: 59: Clause 116, page 64, line 26, at end insert— ““( ) In making regulations under this section the appropriate Minister must have regard to the importance of avoiding unfair prejudice to health care workers against whom unsubstantiated allegations are made.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, it would be convenient also to consider Amendments Nos. 75 and 76. On Amendment No. 59, we had an extremely useful debate in Grand Committee about the power in the Bill to allow healthcare organisations to share information with healthcare workers. Noble Lords focused particularly on sharing information which may be unsubstantiated at the time of sharing and where information may show a threat to a patient’s safety. In Grand Committee there was some recognition that it could sometimes be justified to share information that suggests, but may not in itself be sufficient to prove, a possible threat to patients’ safety. An example we discussed was an extreme value on a clinical indicator. I was pleased about the degree of consensus on this point but I also took away from the debate some important points made by noble Lords about getting the balance right between protecting patients and ensuring the fair treatment of practitioners. I have therefore looked at how we might reassure noble Lords that the careers of healthcare workers will not be prejudiced by sharing information that includes unsubstantiated allegations. That is why I have tabled government Amendment No. 59, which requires the appropriate Minister, in making regulations that will set out in detail how information can and should be shared, to have regard to the importance of avoiding unfair prejudice to healthcare workers against whom unsubstantiated allegations are made. This means that the rights of healthcare workers will have to be taken fully into account when making the regulations which will, after all, determine how this provision works in practice. I hope noble Lords will welcome this. Turning to Amendments Nos. 75 and 76, during our debate in Grand Committee on the piloting of legally qualified chairs, concerns were raised about how such a pilot could be run in a way which would be fair to the individual practitioner. In response to these concerns, I gave an assurance that the Government were satisfied that there are a number of ways in which a pilot could be run fairly and sensibly. While not wishing to rehearse the important and detailed debate we had in Grand Committee, I am happy to repeat that assurance today. Having said that, I looked at the points that noble Lords raised and I appreciate that, notwithstanding my assurances, it may be difficult for them to be fully at ease with these provisions without seeing the detail of the proposals. In order to address these concerns, I did not want to remove the option of piloting from the Bill, as doing so would be removing a valuable optional mechanism for OHPA to use to help it to make evidence-based decisions on which cases might benefit from having legally qualified chairs. Instead, I have tabled a government amendment to ensure that, if OHPA decides to make rules which include piloting provisions, they must be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. This means that your Lordships’ House will have the opportunity to debate the detail of how OHPA would like to run the pilot and will have the freedom to reject the proposals if there are any concerns that they are unfair to individual practitioners. This amendment means that noble Lords do not simply have to take my word for it that a pilot would be fair; they will be able to judge for themselves on the basis of firm proposals that OHPA itself will develop in conjunction with lawyers. I hope this will help to allay any remaining concerns on the issue. I beg to move.