NHS Redress Bill [HL]

I draw some comfort from that reply, which was very helpful. I am pleased to hear that it is not envisaged that the process will be adversarial in any way. That would be retrograde and I am sure that the Minister will be pleased to hear that we agree on that point. The NHSLA does, indeed, have a lot of expertise, but its main drawback is that it is, when all is said and done, an in-house body. That is a severe disadvantage to it. The Minister challenges me to produce alternative models. There are, in fact, alternatives: as he will know, the Resolve pilot was one such model, which was essentially run by an independent organisation. I do not think that it is self-evident that such a body needs to be within the NHS at all. With due deference to the noble Baroness, Lady Neuberger, who argued the case for the healthcare commission—not a stupid idea by any means—it is, perhaps, not the only option. One other option might be perhaps to commission an independent private sector body to form a service which would form a tribunal that everyone would regard as neutral and trustworthy. So I think that there are different models here. I do not know whether the Government’s thinking has progressed to the stage where they are clear about how the NHSLA would configure itself. The Minister has talked a lot about how the trust would run this, which is very helpful, but I am still not quite clear about how the NHSLA would operate in its role as scheme authority. If the Minister is able to reflect on that issue and write to me, I should be very grateful.