NHS Redress Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 50:"Page 4, line 17, leave out ““he considers”” and insert ““may be””" The noble Earl said: In moving Amendment No. 50 I shall speak also to Amendment No. 52. My concern in bringing forward these amendments relates to the Secretary of State’s discretion. The wording of the clause implies that rather a lot of ministerial discretion could be exercised in this area. No one would disagree that the assistance provided to claimants should be such as to meet all reasonable requirements, but apparently the Secretary of Stare will decide exactly what that means. The Secretary of State will effectively decide what is reasonable and I cannot say that I am altogether comfortable with that idea. What is the Government’s view of reasonableness in this context and how will that be defined in the implementing regulations? I would also be glad if the Minister could say a little more—she has already spoken briefly on this—about subsection (3), which refers to making payments to those who assist or represent a claimant under the redress scheme. We understand that the Government have PALS and ICAS in mind. I have no objection to either service but there are problems with each of them in this context. The problem with PALS is that it is in-house to the NHS and so, to pursue your claim through PALS, you will not only be consigning the investigation to the NHSLA—which will be viewed, rightly, as part of the NHS—but you will also be entrusting yourself to another in-house body for advice and assistance throughout the whole process. That is not particularly attractive as a concept. At least ICAS is independent, but there are two problems and the noble Baroness, Lady Neuberger, put her finger on both. It is not yet anywhere near functioning properly and it cannot be relied upon to provide a good service in all parts of the country. It is woefully under-resourced. The other problem is that ICAS is intended as a source of generalist advocacy support and not the kind of advice and support required in a specialist field such as criminal negligence. If ICAS were to be used in that role, the people assigned to it would need to have specialist training and be dedicated to this particular field. I was encouraged to hear the Minister speak of ICAS being resourced further to provide this kind of service. That sounds as though the money would follow the service. It would be helpful if she could say a little more about the concerns that have been raised.