NHS Redress Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 69:"Page 7, line 22, leave out ““Health Service””" The noble Baroness said: This is a case of mea culpa. I apologise for the delay in bringing this amendment to the Committee’s attention. It is purely a technical amendment, the effect of which is simply to remove the words ““Health Service”” which were erroneously included in the draft. Clause 15 of the NHS Redress Bill amends the Health Service Commissioners Act 1993—the 1993 Act—to broaden the remit of the Health Service Commissioner for England to include complaints relating to maladministration of the redress scheme. When this clause was drafted, the department took into account the Public Service Ombudsman (Wales) Act 2005—the 2005 Act. The 2005 Act will, inter alia, remove the provisions in the 1993 Act relating to Wales as the Act establishes and makes provision about the office of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales and abolishes the office of the Health Service Commissioner for Wales. The 2005 Act makes consequential amendments to the references in the 1993 Act to ““the Health Service Commissioner for England”” and to ““a Commissioner”” to replace these with ““the Commissioner””, and to remove references to the Health Service Commissioner for Wales. As the department was aware that the 2005 Act was to be brought into force on 1 April 2006, and as the NHS Redress Bill was not expected to receive Royal Assent before that date, the amendments made by Clause 15 were intended to be drafted to operate on the 1993 Act as it will be when amended by the 2005 Act. However, it has come to the department’s attention that the amendments made to the 1993 Act by Clause 15 refer to ““the Health Service Commissioner””—see Clause 15(2) and 15(7)—when, as amended by the 2005 Act, the references should in fact be to ““the Commissioner””. The words ““Health Service”” were included in error. The effect of the amendment is simply to remove the words ““Health Service””, which were erroneously included.