Health Bill [HL]

I agree with all that the noble Baroness said as regards incorporating a duty to have regard to the handbook. My Amendment 8 is designed to meet that purpose. If anything, it is more important that people should be under an obligation to abide by the handbook than by the constitution in isolation because, of its very nature, as the noble Baroness indicated, the constitution is expressed only in headline terms rather than in terms of the explanatory substance in the handbook. We need to remember that the handbook not only defines but, in some cases, limits the rights and pledges set out in the constitution. If the duty to have regard to the constitution is not accompanied by an equivalent duty in relation to the handbook, we are left wondering what status the handbook has. At the moment, it does not appear to have any at all. In purely practical terms, we want to be certain that people employed by the NHS operate with a clear understanding of what the constitution actually means rather than what they think it means. That is the central point at issue here.