Health Bill [HL]

I shall speak also to Amendment 2. Before I turn to those amendments—I do not intend to delay the Committee for too long—I want to welcome noble Lords to the Committee and say how much I am looking forward to our debates on the Bill’s further stages, in particular that in Grand Committee. My first experience of Grand Committee was during the passage of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. All of us felt that that Act was improved by the important contributions of noble Lords, although I very much hope that we will keep our debates shorter than those we had on that Bill. I look forward to a similar quality of debate on this Bill; that has already been demonstrated by the informed contributions made at Second Reading. I turn to government Amendments 1 and 2, which are minor, technical amendments. They make it clear that the constitution and handbook referred to in the Bill are the versions published on 21 January. I am pleased that the NHS Constitution was published very shortly after First Reading; that meant that noble Lords have had the opportunity well in advance of Second Reading to consider its contents. Noble Lords will be aware that the Bill was published on 15 January, which was, of course, prior to the publication of the constitution, and therefore the specific dated constitution and handbook could not be referred to when the Bill had its First Reading. As we are asking the NHS to have regard to the constitution, it is important that the legislation is crystal clear about the document we are referring to, which is why the Government have tabled the amendments. I hope that noble Lords are content with these minor amendments. I beg to move.