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Health and Social Care Bill

My Lords, Amendments Nos. 68A and 68B would alter the effect of new Section 45R, which enables public health protection regulations to be made, in urgent circumstances, following a procedure set out in that section. The procedure allows regulations which contain the relevant declaration to take effect immediately and last for 28 days unless they are rejected by a vote in either House of Parliament and therefore cease to have effect. The regulations must be approved by a vote in each House before the 28th day in order to remain in effect. Amendments Nos. 68A and 68B would reduce that 28-day period to seven days for regulations that enable the imposition of isolation, quarantine or detention. In addition, Amendment No. 68B would require Parliament to be recalled during any recess if such a debate was required, and would allow the regulations relating to these measures to be amended during debate in either House. Before I set out why I do not think these amendments are necessary, I emphasise that they do not reflect any recommendations put forward by the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. As noble Lords know, the Government accepted that committee’s recommendations in full and it has not raised any further issues since. I understand the reasoning behind the desire to recall Parliament and allow only seven days before a debate on regulations relating to isolation, quarantine and detention. However, I believe that there are already sufficient safeguards in the Bill to ensure that individuals’ liberties are respected. All individuals who are placed under quarantine, detention or isolation through regulations will have a right to appeal at any time to a justice of the peace. In addition, they must have an automatic review of their case, whether or not they have used their right of appeal, within 28 days of the measure commencing. These provisions must be included in all regulations imposing quarantine, isolation or detention regardless of when Parliament approves them. I do not believe that it would be appropriate to recall Parliament in every situation where urgent regulations included isolation, quarantine and detention measures. Reference was made to SARS. If there were another outbreak of an infection such as the outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong, and experts strongly believed that the UK was at imminent risk, we would want to make urgent regulations to ensure that we had immediate quarantine powers. However, although it would be necessary to ensure that powers were in place immediately, they might not be used immediately. In fact, they might not be used for weeks, months or at all. Their use would depend on whether the risk had materialised. Such precautionary measures may be urgent but may not have such serious implications as to warrant the recall of Parliament, especially given that isolation, quarantine or detention can be imposed only where the serious and imminent threat is actually present at the relevant point in time. That said, our provisions would still allow the Government to recall Parliament where the threat warranted it. The amendments would allow the regulations to be amended. If the Secretary of State were to decide that regulations were needed under the urgent procedure, the decision would be taken following important discussion with experts in the relevant fields. Advice might be sought from experts at the Health Protection Agency, senior doctors and scientists, and possibly even international health organisations such as the World Health Organisation. The regulations laid would seek to implement the measures recommended by these experts as necessary to deal with the public threat at hand. In such circumstances, I strongly believe that the decision that Parliament should be asked to take is to accept the measures in full or to reject them. I hope I have addressed the issues raised by the noble Baroness and that my noble friend Lord Dubs will understand my concerns and feel able to withdraw these amendments.