Health and Social Care Bill

In summing up after the previous debate, the Minister spoke about the service currently being fragmented and duplicative, and I would agree that it is. I am glad that the Government's intention is to have a service where healthcare providers collaborate more than they do at the moment. I accept that there will be a range of providers, and I support having a wide range of providers to provide a spectrum of services. However, I do not understand—and have not understood from the answers—why anti-collaborative behaviour should not be up there as a general duty for Monitor with anti-competitive behaviour. Because of that, and because of all the discussion that we have had over integration and collaboration, I feel that it is a duty that I have to those who wish to collaborate in the NHS to test the opinion of the House, so that there is equal status between anti-competitive and anti-collaborative behaviour in the event of there being a conflict between the two.