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Health Bill [HL]

At this late hour, it would not be right to go into the many issues raised in the Archer inquiry. It is a very good report, which deserves serious and detailed consideration by this House. If it has established one thing, it is that people from all political parties were in different ways involved and that some have taken responsibility. This is not a partisan issue. I would suggest that it is an issue that the House of Lords is well placed to look at in some depth. I do not want to dishearten the noble Lord, Lord Morris of Manchester. I am not sure whether his proposal for a committee is right, but I am willing to listen to the Committee on that. What I am most concerned about is that the Government’s response should be timely and appropriate. It is a great shame that the Government did not contribute to the inquiry chaired by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Archer, but they are under an obligation to respond in a timely fashion. The government response perhaps needs to be in two parts: one an urgent response to the needs of people who are currently living with the consequences of being given these blood products, whose needs are urgent and serious, and the other on the wider question of what we should learn from the inquiry. That response would be much longer and more detailed. We would do well to consider things that happen in other healthcare systems, particularly the response in the American healthcare system, although it is an entirely different system, and what should happen in our healthcare system is not the same. Many deep questions of policy and practice emerge from the report of the inquiry chaired by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Archer. They deserve to be looked at, but let us not use them as a reason to delay responding to the urgent needs of people who need help now. Similarly, let us not use the urgent needs of people now as a reason to give a cursory response to those quite deep questions.