Health Bill [HL]

I shall speak also to Amendments 16, 21 and 31. This group of amendments is on a similar tack. It concerns the list of bodies that are to be consulted when the NHS constitution is revised 10 years hence. There is a presumption that the bodies listed will still be around and functioning, but that may be dreadfully optimistic given the lifespan of some NHS bodies over the past few years. None the less, the amendments in the group highlight the concern shared by noble Lords around the Committee that if the document is to work in the way envisaged by the Minister, it needs to be, if nothing else, a focal point for discussion about how the NHS is working and should work in the future, and a number of people ought to be involved as of right, separately and distinctly, in any revision of it. Carers, for example, should not be swept up in a general category of ““the public”” because they have a distinct input. I cannot stress enough that local authorities and representative bodies of local authorities should be involved. We will move to a time when responsibility for health will go well beyond the National Health Service and on to what remains of the public service infrastructure. If this document takes off and becomes the progressive tool that the Minister envisages, then he has nothing to fear in stating publicly now that these groups of people will be involved in its revision as it goes on with its life. I beg to move.