NHS Redress Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his very full reply. I do not believe that it was a matter of ““flushing out”” because he knew perfectly well what I thought before we started. However, let me make a couple of points. I am quite sure that we will be returning to this issue one way or another. First, of course it is true that the NHS Litigation Authority has a relationship with every single trust; so, indeed, does the Healthcare Commission. I would not necessarily take that distinction on board. The point that we have been labouring right the way through Grand Committee, both on Monday and today, is the question of independence. I do not believe that the public at large regards the NHS Litigation Authority as being truly independent. That is a point of principle which the Minister needs to go back and think about. Of course it is fair to say that lawyers who are salaried employees of the NHS Litigation Authority have their professional code; so, too, do the doctors who may be the subject of some of the complaints that will eventually end up going through the redress scheme. However, there is a question about the loyalty of employees to a particular body. Clearly, people who work for the NHS Litigation Authority will see it as part of their duty to be loyal so far as possible and to serve the interests so far as possible of the NHS Litigation Authority. The NHS Litigation Authority, at least in part, is set up to limit the liability of the NHS concerning claims. We know that, and I cite some statistics that I have been given. The majority of clinical negligence cases that are settled in favour of the claimant have already been investigated by the NHS trusts concerned, with no serious fault or liability being acknowledged, and, according to the litigation authority’s own statistics, 80 per cent of the clinical negligence cases that have been most rigorously defended by the NHS Litigation Authority have been judged in favour of the claimant. So, it is not clear that the public will regard the NHS Litigation Authority as separate, independent and truly there to serve the public interest at large. I think that they feel that about the Healthcare Commission. To return to the point that I made about the complaints function, of course I do not want to take the complaints function away from the Healthcare Commission. It has only just got it and it seems to me that it is dealing with it rather well—no doubt that matter will be discussed at greater length tomorrow when we debate my Question. If we are saying that the Healthcare Commission could do only one of those two functions, some hard decisions may have to be made, because I strongly feel that the litigation authority is not perceived as being independent and, therefore, will not do.